(Love Is Like A ) Battlefield
by BlackLabelBottleKindaGirl
Summary: Kylie Swan and Jacob Black were supposed to be a sure thing.. But then Bella moves back to Forks and the relationship begins to deteroriate. When Jacob chooses Bella one too many times, Kylie ends things.. And things get a whole lot more interestin when a tempermental shifter imprints her as Jacob's regretting his own haste in choosing Bella. And of course, all of the other drama..
1. Chapter 1

_Over When It's Over_

It's the first snap of the last straw,  
Where regrets outlast the alcohol  
It's a cold sweat, in an empty bed,  
And dreams are like a knife,  
When you're hanging by a thread  
Ain't no "Maybe we can make it if we just play the right cards"

Over when it's Over, Eric Church

_Jacob / Kylie_

"Maybe you're being just a little insensitive towards Bella, Kylie? She's depressed. She needs people around her, not distancing themselves right now." Jacob explained to his girlfriend, Kylie as he looked at her, shook his head.

He didn't get it lately, it felt like he was torn between his best friend and her younger sister, his girlfriend. The strain was causing him to really question things between himself and Kylie lately, because it honestly just seemed as if she were being totally selfish. Which wasn't like her, not until recently, maybe in the past year or so, since her older sister and his best friend Bella moved back to Forks to live with Charlie and Kylie.

"No, Jacob, I'm not. A guy broke up with her.. That is not a reason to go into some kind of catatonic depressed state and spend all her time in her damned room staring out that damned window, giving me judgemental looks when we come back from spending time at La Push.. Look, I get that she's your friend but trust me.. This thing she's doing? It's all to make people feel sorry for her and pay attention to her. She's always done this, it's her thing!" Kylie insisted, looking up at Jacob.

She could feel the tears threatening to fall, she knew lately she was about to lose Jacob to her older sister. Of course, she'd seen the writing on the wall when her older sister moved back last year, and Jacob started to spend more and more time around Bella instead of with her.

"How do you even know that, really? I mean you visited Renee and your stepfather what, four times?" Jacob asked, his voice raising a little as he looked at Kylie and then over her shoulder, peering into Bella's bedroom where Bella sat, totally oblivious to anything around her it seemed.

"And every single time I went, Jacob, if I got even a smidge more attention than she did, she was sulling up, pouting, pretending to be hurt or sick or something.. Look, that's just the way she is. Believe me if you want to, if you don't want to then don't. Either way, I'm not trying to lie to you or something. I also don't see why we're fighting about this."

"Because, Kylie, I just think that maybe it'd be a good thing if she came to La Push with us tonight for the bonfire. It would be better for her than just sitting in her room and staring out her window, depressed. Are you even a little worried about her?"

"I am, actually.. But I'm not stupid enough to give her exactly what she wants, either. She's doing this to get your attention, Jake because she's only okay when you come to see me, any idiot can clearly see she's doing it for attention except for you of course.. Know what? I'm sick of arguing with you. All we do lately is fight.. If you want her to go to La Push? Take her.. But I'm not going with you."

"So you're going to make me choose now, Ky.. Really mature.. Fine. We're leaving."

"I'm not.. I wasn't making you choose.. That you could even think that, Jacob.. But hey, if you want to choose, I guess you just made your choice, huh? I'm done with it."

Kylie gaped at the things they'd just said to each other for a few moments as the color slowly drained from her face and she processed what he'd just done and what she'd felt like she was forced into doing as a result.. but he was basically doing what pretty much everyone else tended to do.. Tossing her aside in favor of her older sister. The prettier one, the smarter one, the better one. The one with less obvious problems until recently. And recently, it seemed as if she were milking her present problems to the fullest extent, extracting every bit of spare attention she could get out of it from pretty much everyone leaving Kylie, of course, to be ignored.. Just like she'd done covertly when they were kids and she'd visit her sister and mother in Phoenix.

"Jacob.."

"You said it, Kylie, not me." Jacob said quietly as he shook his head and turned to walk into Bella's room.

"FINE! I'M BETTER OFF WITHOUT YOU ANYWAY YOU FUCKING PRICK! I DON'T NEED YOU! WHEN I'M RIGHT JACOB, REMEMBER.. YOU CHOSE THIS." Kylie shouted as she took a few deep breaths, turned and walked into her room, making sure to slam the door as hard as humanly possible.

* * *

_(Jacob)_

_Just A Dream_

My lover, my life, my shawty, my wife  
She left me, I'm tied  
Cause I knew that it just ain't right

I was thinking bout her, thinkin' bout me  
Thinkin' bout us, what we gon' be

Open My Eyes, It was only Just a Dream

Nelly, Just A Dream

From where he stood in Bella's room, Jacob sighed sadly and winced a little at the slamming door. For some strange reason it felt as if he might have just made the biggest mistake of his life and he found himself wishing he could go back and press rewind or something, stop the fight before it started.. But he couldn't, he knew that.

They'd both said too much to each other recently and the fight just now was the straw that broke the camel's back.

"Bella, do you want to go to La Push with me tonight?" Jacob asked Bella. And when she looked up at him and managed a smile, shrugged a little and finally nodded, got up out of the chair, for a split second, everything Kylie just yelled at him in the hallway outside of Bella's bedroom came back to him.. If she were really as upset as she claimed, if she were really as depressed.. It'd take a lot more than him to make her leave the confines of her room. It normally did.

Why was she suddenly okay with going somewhere with him again?

Being a typical idiot, he shoved the thought out of his mind and sat down on the bed, waiting on Bella to change like she'd went into the bathroom that seperated her room from Kylie's room to do.

When she changed, they left for La Push in Bella's truck. And as they pulled away, Jacob looked up, saw Kylie standing in the window of her bedroom. He felt that feeling again, the feeling he'd gotten a few minutes before, like he was making the biggest mistake of his life.. But again, he ignored it. He had to be right.. Kylie was being selfish and bitchy lately.

What he didn't realize, of course, was that he'd been a shitty boyfriend lately.. He'd forgotten dates, he'd went a day or two without calling her once because they had a huge fight, he'd tell her he'd do things and then he'd not do them because he was trying to help his best friend Bella as much as he could with her current situation.. And he wouldn't realize that, of course, until it was too late. But isn't that the way it always goes?

To quote a song.. You don't know what you got til it's gone.

* * *

_Make Up Your Mind_

If we break up, we'll wind up losing both of our minds  
So wake up, let's make up and do this for the last time

Make up your mind and I'll make up mine  
Don't worry about me, I'll be fine  
The last time you yelled at me, I swore that I heard you say  
"I wish I hadn't met you at all, " I started thinking

Make Up Your Mind, Theory Of A DeadMan

_Kylie_

In her room, Kylie sat on the floor in front of her bedroom door, listening, hoping against all reasonable hope that Jacob would calm down, come back into her room and they'd make up. They always made up. This was just a stupid fight and yes, she could honestly say she'd over reacted just now.. But she was just getting so sick of it lately, being shoved out of the big picture just because her royal highness was having an apparent neurotic mental breakdown.

She looked at the cork board above her desk, she saw all the pictures of Jacob and her with their friends, she saw the dream catcher he'd given her. She stood and walked to the window just in time to watch Jacob leaving for La Push with Bella and without her. She wiped at her eyes for a few moments and then sighed quietly. It hurt like hell.

She'd known him her whole life, practically, there wasn't a memory she had that didn't have him in it somehow, he'd just always been around.. And naturally, friendship turned into a mutual crush.. They'd only just gotten past the awkwardness that came with admitting how you felt to your best friend when Bella moved back to Forks.. At first, things were good. Bella was dating the jerk known as Edward, Jacob seemed content with her. They were always together, she and Jacob were, and if you'd asked Kylie about this time last year, she'd never have thought that Jacob would do what he'd done, that he'd say the things he said to her tonight.

She'd honestly been living out her lifelong fairytale until Bella came to live with their father and turned it into a nightmare of sorts.

Her eyes filled with tears again and she shook her head, stepping away from the window, shutting the curtains. "Okay.. It's going to be okay, Kylie, unlike her, you don't thrive on pity and attention. You will be okay. It's just a breakup. Jacob.."

But even as she said the words, deep down, she knew she didn't actually believe them. Everything felt like a raw nerve right now. She was feeling the full brunt of the pain and the bitterness and the anger.

But with shaky hands, she started pulling all the pictures down off of the corkboard and throwing them into the trash. The next thing that went was the framed photo of her with Jacob at the fair in Port Angeles the year before.

The entire time she was doing this, she was sobbing practically. She felt drained when she finished, falling back across her bed, staring up at the ceiling. But she wanted all of this pain out tonight. She wasn't going to sit back and just let it build, let it consume her.

She wasn't that kind of girl, she never had been.

Grabbing the trash bin and a box of matches from the hallway table on her way out of the house, she walked around to the backyard and struck the match, dropping it into the trash bin. She stood there, watched it burning.

Her eyes caught on the old friendship bracelet and she sighed as she slipped it off her wrist and added it to the fire, wiping at her eyes as she did so. They'd had friendship bracelets since their two schools took a joint field trip to the Port Angeles Zoo in 4th grade and he'd gotten them for them.

This only made her sob harder.

How much more did she have to lose so her precious and supposedly perfect saintly bitch of an older sister have to take from her before she was 'herself' again?

"Not this time, Bella.. You've finally done it. You've completely broken our relationship as sisters. If you want Jake? Take him by all means.. But don't expect me to give two shits about you when you've totally fucked up your life and his.. Because I know just how you really are, Bella, and I know that's exactly what you're going to do." Kylie said as she cried and sat down on the swing nearby, bringing her knees up to her chin, wrapping her arms around them, just staring intently into the fire she started in the trash bin from her room.

The part that hurt her the worst was that even knowing he'd basically chosen Bella over her tonight, and she'd finally just gotten sick of the way she seemed to not exist to pretty much anyone when Bella was around or Bella wanted or needed something.. She couldn't just turn off the feelings she'd always had for Jacob and the way they'd sort of grown and changed. This was her first major relationship and now, apparently, it looked as if it would be her first major taste of heartbreak.

And it was killing her inside.

The sad part of it really was that nobody would probably ever notice, because being the good and loyal daughter and sister or friend she was, she'd never let anybody see just how much it really hurt. She didn't need and thrive off of attention like her older sister seemed to lately.

And she sighed as she finally managed to stop crying, took a few calming and deep breaths.. "You'll be okay, Kylie. You're always okay. And you've never really needed anyone. And apparently, contrary to what you thought before, you really are expendable to pretty much everyone that matters to you. Fuck them all.. Especially Jacob and Bella."

Even as she tried to reassure herself with the words, she felt like it was half hearted at best. This was her first major heartbreak and it was killing her.

But unlike her older sister, she was going to keep going, she'd just adjust, move on.

Because God knew Charlie had enough on his plate with Bella being the clingy and obsessive neurotic twit she was lately about her precious freak Edward.

And she loved her father. She wasn't going to make anything any harder than they had to be for him. Two teenage meltdowns at once might just blow the man's mind.

The fire was dying out so she got a hose and put it out, walked back onto the deck and was about to walk into the house when a wolf howling nearby caught her off guard and made her jump about a mile into the air nervously.

She looked to see if she might catch a glimpse of the howl but she saw nothing and went inside, making sure to shut and lock the door behind her.

* * *

_In Love With A Girl_

I'm in love with a girl who knows me better,  
Fell for the women just when I met her,  
Took my sweet time when I was bitter,  
Someone understands,  
And she knows how to treat a fella right,  
Give me that feeling every night,  
Wants to make love when I wanna fight,  
Now someone understand me,

Gavin Degraw, In Love With A Girl

_(Wolf)_

_Sam had just finished walking him through the basics of patrolling the forest when it happened. All of a sudden his body felt like it was on fire all over. From where they stood just over the La Push Forks Treaty line, his eyes darted around, there was this smell, it smelled exactly like vanilla cake frosting and it hung heavily in the night air. At first, he saw nothing._

"_Focus." Sam warned the wolf, but it was to no avail.. The wolf's more primal and baser instincts were taking over now and his nose was demanding that he follow the scent trail. _

"_What the hell is happening to me, Uley?" the wolf thought as he glared at Sam, angry. He wasn't sure what was going on, if this was some sort of step in the process of becoming a shapeshifter or something, but he didn't like it, the way the wolf in him just sort of took the helm and totally left his human side out of things._

_Whatever this smell was, it was enticing him, enchanting him to follow it, find it, see it.._

_Sam chuckled a little, the chuckles came out as a series of barks. He thought back to the newest member of the pack, "You're imprinting. We'll pick this up in a few minutes.. Just go already, damn it, follow your nose.. If you don't now, you won't ever focus on what I'm telling you about patrolling the woods and protecting our people."_

"_Didn't think I needed your permission." the wolf thought as it broke from the two other wolves present, took off after the scent. _

_He found himself just a few feet away, standing in the treeline that ran along the back of a house.. The house was white, it was a smaller 2 story with a hip high picket fence surrounding. The fence was a suggestion to him. The scent trail wasn't ended yet and the wolf was determined to follow it._

_The door opening on the side of the white 2 story house posed a huge problem and the solution to that problem because almost as soon as he saw her, he knew.. She was the source of the scent trail he'd been smelling just now._

_She was his and nobody else's._

_His vision tunneled and images like those from a movie or something bombarded his stream of consciousness. He could see her, he could see them, he could see everything. He felt as if everything he'd been before just sort of fell to the ground after being torn and stripped away. He was bare bones and raw nerves. She held the knife that tore and stripped away the pieces of his former self. She held his heart in her hands, beating, only she alone had the power to cherish it or break it into a thousand pieces._

_The wolf's human counterpart would die before admitting this because he was nothing if not the epitome of male dominance. _

_With his enhanced wolf vision, he could see the tears in her eyes.. He hung back behind the bushes, just out of sight and watched as the 5'2 absolute center of his universe lit something in a baby blue metal wire trash bin on fire and cried, no, she sobbed.._

_He recognized her, he'd seen her around the reservation quite a bit with another boy who Sam thought would eventually become a member of the pack, Jacob Black. _

_More recently though, he'd seen her hanging around the search party gathered in the woods to find her older sister.. He'd seen the pained look in her soft bluish green eyes when Jacob emerged, carrying her older sister in his arms. He'd seen the way she ran to him and hugged him, expressed her worry over her older sister and her worry over Jacob, who seemed to sort of just barely acknowledge Kylie's attention to him._

_The kid seemed to be good at ignoring his actual girlfriend and chasing her big sister's ass.. And the human counterpart of the wolf currently imprinting on Kylie, the girl in question.. He'd been almost painfully aware of Kylie Swan for a month or better now.. And he'd seen the way Jacob treated her.. He'd seen the way Jacob sort of neglected her lately in favor of her sister._

_The anger surprised him as it fought to the surface.. Had that little shit made her cry?_

_Sam's Alpha voice broke through his thoughts and he heard him saying "Okay.. Whoa.. Calm down. Let's not assume anything yet. For now, though, I believe it's best if you stay clear of Jacob Black.. And your imprint."_

"_The fuck? Who the hell do you think you are, Uley.. Look, I didn't sign up for this shit.. And you're not takin her from me. This is probably the only good thing about being a shifter, damn it. I get her. I just.. I need her.. Okay?"_

"_I know.. But I needed Emily and look what I did to Emily when things got a little too intense because I had no one to teach me how to properly control my anger.. You can see her now and then.. But you have to keep your distance as much as possible."_

_He heard Jared's thought, "Okay buddy, let's not fight.. We're a pack, remember? And we gotta learn this so we can show the others when they finally phase and join us." and it served to calm him just a little._

_He stared intently at Kylie, Jacob's girlfriend and a long howl ripped from his throat and echoed into the night as he turned and ran away to join his pack, to finish learning what he was responsible for as a shapeshifter._

_He'd see her around, he was almost ninety percent certain of it. She was after all, dating that little shit Jacob Black... It was a matter of right place, right time and using any opportunity he got to see her and get to know her to do those things. All he had to do was pick his moment and approach accordingly. The wolf was nothing if not confident and bold, unafraid of little things like messing up a first meeting._

"_Until I figure out a way to get her to myself.. She won't cry with me. So help me, God, I'm gonna do whatever it takes to make her happy, to protect her and love her.."_


	2. Chapter 2

**(Before I even start this chapter, I want to thank everyone who's reviewed, both logged in and anonymous, your encouragement and the things you had to say about the story really made me smile. If you've noticed, I seperate things and I use appropriate song lyrics to do that. It's sort of a mood setter or something? Anyway, I tell you this because the very last song for this chapter and the song lyrics by the Fray are two songs I feel that happen to fit Kylie and Paul and what their relationship will become fairly soon.. This chapter sort of came to me based on just how she's known Jacob so long and how it's really hard to break ties with someone you've known essentially your whole life.. For the reviewers who don't want her to be friends with Jacob, no worries.. She's actually quite fed up with both parties and she'll really be disgusted with Jacob when he shows his ass shortly about her friendship with Paul.. I loved the reviews everyone and I thank everyone, whether you've reviewed or just added me to alerts. It's because of all of you that this story continues because I have to admit, when the first chapter came to me, I was sort of worried about actually sharing it.. THANKS FOR THE LOVE GUYS!)**

* * *

CHAPTER TWO

I don't want to be  
Anything other than what I've been trying to be lately  
All I have to do  
Is think of me and I have peace of mind  
I'm tired of looking 'round rooms  
Wondering what I've got to do  
Or who I'm supposed to be  
I don't want to be anything other than me

Gavin Degraw, I Don't Want To Be

(Kylie/Jessica)

" I thought you said there wasn't going to be anybody else but us here tonight, Jess." Kylie asked through gritted teeth as she got out of her best friend Jessica's Jeep and saw that apparently, Jessica tricked her into coming to First Beach.. Which was currently packed with other people they knew.

Jacob was there, of course, with Bella in tow. Lately, it seemed like they were appendages of each other. And every time Kylie saw them, it hurt like hell. So far though, she'd done a good job at keeping that to herself.

"Yeah, well, I wasn't gonna let Bella get away with sucking another guy's soul out either.. And you haven't been you since you dumped Jake.. Don't you think you could at least try to talk to him? I mean can't you two just go back to being friends? You guys are my friends too and it just feels weird lately.. Everything's changing, Kylie. It's all because of her." Jessica asked as she eyed her friend, concerned.

Kylie wouldn't ever admit it to anyone, Jessica knew this, but breaking up with Jacob was hard on her. And then with Bella being your basic selfish bitch and not even bothering to hide the fact that she and Jacob were spending ungodly amounts of time lately.. Someone had to stand up for Kylie because apparently, Kylie just wasn't. At least not where her sister was concerned. Jessica had yet to figure out why, of course.

So tonight, Jessica dragged Kylie down here under false pretenses. Because maybe if Jacob saw her out again, fine again.. Things would fix themselves and be okay again, their little group could go back to being the way it was pre – Bella.

"I'm going home."

"No, Kylie, you're not. You're going to stay with me. Because you need to stop dancing around your problems with your sister, Kylie, stop letting her walk all over you. And you need to show Jacob that he's going to miss out, because you're not going to just sit around and wait on Bella to toss him out or something once she's used him up.. Because you said it.. That's exactly what she's going to do. She's a user."

Kylie's eyes settled on Bella and Jacob where they sat near a bonfire someone started, talking, sitting close together. She sighed. Jessica was right, of course, she didn't really stand up to her sister for the most part.

"Okay, fine.. Color me curious here, how do I do that?"

"Well, maybe you start by rubbing your fabulous single status in Jacob's face.. When he gets jealous or whatever, then he'll stop paying Bella attention.. And we all know how annoying she is when she doesn't get the attention she whores herself out for.." Jessica explained in a whisper as the two girls scanned the crowd.

"Nope, not worth it. I don't even care about making Jacob jealous. This isn't about me hurting him, okay? Because I know my bitch of a sister and sooner or later, she'll do that matter how much he's hurt me, I can't do it to him.. Nope, no way.. That's not me."

"Basically, Kylie, you're admitting that once again, Bella is going to win. Don't you get tired of it?"

"I do, Jess, but she's my sister.. And she's a headcase. I'm afraid she might stab me in my sleep or something if I actually start standing up to her.. Besides, my dad has enough shit going on without the two of us at each other's throats all the time." Kylie explained as she and Jessica walked towards a cooler sitting in the back of someone's truck.

She grabbed a wine cooler and opened it, sipping as she stared out at the crowd. She had no actual desire to be here tonight, she'd have been just fine going somewhere else.. But Jessica kept nagging and pushing and she'd finally caved.

Retreating into her room like Bella had done wasn't her style anyway and she knew that it wouldn't work for her, everyone would just tell her to get a grip, suck it up and deal with it... forcing herself to be okay with everything as it stood currently,wasn't working well though and it didn't really suit her either and the more she had to be near her sister, the more she had to watch Bella being 'magically healed' or whatever by Jacob's mere presence.. The harder it got for her not to finally snap or something.

She twisted the top off of the wine cooler and took a sip, grimacing at the bittersweet taste. "The hell is this even?"

"Strawberry Daiquiri." Jessica answered as she watched Bella and Jacob, watched Mike Newton watching them. "Let's do this. The sooner we get you circulating, girl, the better."

"Jess, I love you for caring. And I know this is personal for you because she made Mike dump you when she moved here.. But she's honestly not worth the effort.. Neither is Jacob.. I mean I thought I knew him and I clearly didn't." Kylie said as she made herself quit looking over at Jacob and Bella.

She wasn't going to be that girl. She was going to go through this quietly and with a little more class. It wasn't what she wanted to do, but.. She rarely got what she really wanted.

It kept the peace at home and that's what mattered.

"Oh come on, seriously? She's going to get away with it again?"

Kylie debated on it a moment and shotgunned the wine cooler in her hands before saying finally, "Okay, you're right, fine."

"Alright! Finally! Now maybe she'll stop treating you like trash." Jessica said as she looked at her friend and smiled, added "I'm just pushing this because I care.. And my stand with her cost me Mike. But you.. You and Jacob have never been mad at each other this long."

"I'm telling you, Jessica.. I'm totally done."

"You've said that before."

"And this time, Jess, I mean it." Kylie admitted as she pulled up her shirt sleeve, revealed that she wasn't wearing the friendship bracelet he'd gotten her anymore.

"What'd you do with it?"

"I burnt the damned thing."

"What? When?"

"The night everything went down, Jess, I called you crying like a baby not even an hour later.. Remember?"

"Hello stranger.. Who is he and where do I find one?" Jessica asked a few moments later as she nudged Kylie and nodded in the direction of a guy who stood about three feet away, leaned against a tree, sipping a drink, watching Kylie intently. Jessica shoved her in that general direction and then said "Go, damn it.. He's staring at you, chica, not me."

"Knowing my luck, Jess, he probably thinks I'm Bella."

"You're prettier." Jessica called out after her friend, settling back into her spot on the tailgate, watching everyone else talking and laughing, silently glaring a hole through Bella Swan's head. She didn't see how nobody else but her and Kylie actually saw through her little act. She smirked to herself a little when she happened to look over in the general direction of Jacob and Bella to see that Jacob was watching Kylie as Kylie walked towards the guy. Jessica gave him a shrug and turned her attention back to watching her friend.

Unlike Bella or Jacob, Jessica cared and she wanted Kylie to finally have someone who didn't just see her as a secondary option like Jessica personally felt that Jacob sort of had for a while now. And from the looks of it, Jacob was not thrilled with Kylie talking to another guy.

"Go get 'em, 's about time!" she muttered to herself as she started scanning the crowd looking for her own guy to flirt with, content that Kylie was going to talk to the hot guy that had been watching her so intently and realizing that now left Jessica to follow her own advice.

* * *

Everyone knows

She's on your mind  
Everyone knows I'm in over my head  
I'm in over my head

The Fray, Over My Head (Cable Car)

(Paul/Jared)

"Are you mental, Paul? This is the last place you need to be given that you got suspended earlier for punching Jacob in the face." Jared asked as he followed his wolf brother slash best friend through the trail leading down to First Beach.

They'd seen Jacob walking down there with Bella and not too long after, the wolf side of him picked up on Kylie's scent. And he wasn't leaving Kylie at that bonfire or whatever the hell it was with Jacob Black.

"Calm your tits, Cameron. I'm just gonna make sure she's okay."

"That's it, Lahote.. You check on her and then we're gone. You've almost wolfed out on Black 3 times and that's just this week. If she is his girlfriend, man, that's not gonna make her like you.. You want her to like you when she meets you, right?"

"Cameron, has anyone ever told you that you sound like a bitch sometimes? And I happen to know, for your information, Jacob is not her boyfriend anymore. If he was, why the hell did she set all the pictures of them on fire last week, huh? Girls don't just burn pictures of their boyfriends for no reason." Paul said as he peered through the bushes and watched Kylie standing near a cooler, talking to a girl with brown hair and what could pass for a beak nose.

"Look at the schnozz on that chick, would ya?"

"Kylie is fine,obviously, Paul, you need to.." Jared started, grumbling when naturally, Paul got it into his stubborn thick head that despite what he'd already been told several times, he was going to go to her.

Paul stopped and leaned against a tree after snaking something to drink off of somebody when they walked past handing out drinks.

She was the air he breathed. She was his heart, his soul, his everything.. The girl talking to Kylie looked over and he didn't drop his gaze quickly enough, and before he knew it, the girl talking to his imprint was nudging his imprint and she looked up.

Their eyes met and it felt like the world around them literally froze. Everything else faded into the background but Kylie.

And he smirked to himself a little as she started to make her way over. Jared was hissing his name from the bushes and he held up a finger and hissed back, "Just a few minutes, man."

"Okay, alright, fine. But only because I owe you from when you were helping me find ways to see Kim after I did the thing to her.." Jared grumbled as he stepped back into the bushes, stood there waiting.

Leaving Paul to his own devices was a no fly situation..

Especially given the fact that Paul had gotten it into his head that Jacob Black had hurt her.

And Jacob Black happened to be at the beach tonight with Bella, Kylie's older sister, also the reason that Jacob and Kylie broke up.

The closer Kylie got to him, the harder it became for Paul to hold the wolf at bay. He managed to though and finally, Kylie stood in front of him..

* * *

When I first saw you standing there

You know it was a little hard not to stare  
So nervous when I drove you home  
I know being apart is a little hard to bare.

Theory Of A DeadMan, All or Nothing  
(Kylie/Paul)

"This is stupid.. He's not staring at me. He was probably staring at her." Kylie grumbled to herself as she walked towards the guy Jessica claimed was 'checking her out'. She looked up to see him staring, her theory about his staring as intently as he had been at Jess was effectively blown to hell when he gave her a cocky smirk and a slight wave.

"This still isn't a good idea.. I mean what if Jacob sees me.. I told her this is not about me hurting him.. It's just hard to move on, I don't want to hurt him but I'm sick of being hurt by him.. Ughh, I can't with myself right now, seriously.. I'll just go do this and prove to her that the guy was NOT staring at me or something."

Before she knew it, she was close enough to actually get a good look at him and there was only one actual description for the guy in question.. He had to be a living form of Adonis or something. Her eyes roamed over his body and for a split second, she felt her heart speed up a little.. Suddenly bold and wild went right out the window and she had no clue what to do or say when she actually did get to him.

Paul watched Kylie walking over, waiting patiently, or as patiently as he could. As he waited, he happened to notice that he wasn't the only one looking right now.. Jacob Black was currently staring a hole through Kylie's backside.

He clenched his fists.. The wolf was dying for any little excuse to come out and if Black kept watching her like he was, Paul wasn't entirely sure he could trust himself to keep the wolf at bay.

_'Mine.' _he thought to himself.

_'Kylie, you are an idiot.. This guy is probably a creep or something, at any rate, he's probably not actually interested in you. They actually never are.. And what about Jacob, huh? Sure you dumped him but you don't want to hurt the guy.' _her mind argued with her the entire way over. She finally stood in front of him now and for a few moments, she didn't really say anything.

Paul smirked and then said with a quiet and deep laugh, "Hi."

"I,umm... Hey." Kylie said as she sipped a generous sip of the wine cooler in her hand, raked her other hand through her hair, her heart racing a mile a minute.

There was something about him..

It was dominant.. It was rugged and sexy..

"Do I know you?" Paul asked, looking at her a few moments as he sipped from the cup in his hands.

"I think I've seen you around.. You go to La Push High, right? My boy...I mean my ex boyfriend Jacob.. He goes there." Kylie said as she added quickly, "My name is Kylie."

"I'm Paul. So you two broke up finally, huh?" Paul blurted, instantly wanting to punch himself in the face when he did it. He didn't want to make it quite so obvious, his interest in her. Not just yet.

"Huh?"

"He treated you like crap.. Ignored you and stuff."

"You really don't know me.. Or him."

"And if you broke up with him, Kylie, you kinda didn't either, did ya?" Paul mused as he sipped his drink, nodded in Jacob's direction and said quietly, "That jerk didn't deserve you.. From the looks of it he got exactly what he deserves."

"And you know my sister how?"

"I was part of the search party.. It didn't take an idiot to figure out she basically did that for attention." Paul admitted as he looked at her, his mind practically screaming at him the whole time _'Hello, idiot, blowing it! If you keep coming on strong, you're going to totally fuck this up. And then that little shit will worm his way back in like he was telling that friend of his earlier, how he wanted Kylie back..'_

"I'll give you that, you called that one exactly as I saw it." Kylie said quietly, sipping her own drink. The hostility was sort of melting away and she looked up at him then asked, "How do you know so much though? I mean it seems like you really know me and I barely know you.. Which is interesting.. A little scary but interesting all the same."

"Lucky guesses. And maybe, Kylie, I've sort of noticed you lately? Sort of noticed how he treats you like crap?"

"For a lucky guesser, Paul, you're actually pretty fucking accurate." Kylie admitted, leaving his other statement alone for now as she managed a smallish yet still wary smile.

He knew so much about her, he seemed to be hitting on her or something.. And the intent way he kept looking at her earlier before Jessica shoved her in this direction...

Paul smirked back and then said "Do you dance much, Kylie?"

"Yeah.. I require a few more of these though." she laughed as she held up the wine cooler and then admitted, "I didn't wanna come out tonight.. Jess, she's on this kick about how I don't stand up for myself enough where certain things and people are concerned."

"Maybe she's right."

"That was a jerk thing to say.."

"I don't lie though."

That statement sort of made her smile to herself a little.. He'd told her more of the truth in the past ten minutes they'd talked than Jacob had in a long time.

The realization was what made her suddenly grab his hand and start to drag him closer where a few other couples were dancing to some song or something.

Paul chuckled and then said "Thought you didn't dance.."

"Yeah, well, maybe I decided it's worthwhile to break my own no dancing with strangers rule this one time." Kylie said as she looked up at him.

She felt eyes on her and when they turned slightly, she realized why. Jacob sat there watching her intently, this hurt and slightly pissed look in his eyes. She rolled her eyes and broke eye contact with him. Maybe Paul (and Jessica, because Jessica had originally told her the same) was right.. Maybe she did let Jacob and her sister get away with too much.

Maybe it was time to do everything totally different.

And dancing with an incredibly handsome and candid stranger at a beach party seemed like the perfect start to that.

"If he keeps lookin over here." Paul muttered, an angry edge to his voice as he took a deep breath and concentrated instead on turning them so that Jacob could only stare at him and not Kylie while pulling Kylie completely against him.

In his mind, he kept seeing her crying that night she'd been setting all those pictures on fire in that little trash can in her backyard.

"Paul, he's not worth it.." Kylie said as she looked up at Paul a few moments and then added quietly, " Just dance with me, okay? I just wanna not think about any of it and right now, I kind of am actually succeeding at that.."

"That's good." Paul said quietly as he caught sight of Jacob watching her again. And again, he moved Kylie even closer to him, he was almost daring the little shit now to do something or say something to give him an excuse to hurt him like the little shit obviously hurt Kylie.

"You're really warm." Kylie muttered as she looked up at him, concerned.

"I'm fine." Paul said as he held her gaze and then smirked as he added, "Boys have higher temperatures than girls.."

"You feel like you're standing in a furnace though."

"So maybe I'm just extra manly." Paul joked, making Kylie laugh. Her laugh was soft, seductive. So was the smile that came with the laugh.

"Or maybe, Paul, you have a fever."

"I like extra manly better." Paul said as he looked down at her, laughed a little and then asked, "Are you still feeling better?"

"Oddly enough, given the strange turn the entire conversation took and everything, yeah.. I am.." Kylie admitted as she looked up at him, smiled.

"Thats good." Paul muttered as he caught sight of an impatient Jared and tried bartering for another minute or something.. But it was getting darker and later and he knew that soon he'd have to patrol the forest.

"My friend, the jerk, is apparently ready to leave.. Maybe I'll see you around, Kylie."

"You have a phone?"

"Yeah?"

"Maybe you can call me." Kylie said as she dug around in the pocket of her Forks High cheerleading hoodie and found a pen, writing her number onto his hand, closing his hand as she smiled up at him and then added, "Only if you want to though."

"Definitely. I'll call you." Paul said as he walked away, stopping to wave at her, give her that cocky smirk that seemed to be a trademark thing with him.

Kylie stood there watching him walk away, sipping her wine cooler, her hand in her hair, still trying to figure out exactly what had just happened.

And why it actually didn't feel like she was hurting Jacob the entire time like she'd figured it would before walking over here.

She walked back over to Jessica and Jessica asked her impatiently, "Well?"

"Well.. We talked.. And I gave him my number."

Jessica smirked and high fived Kylie and then asked with a laugh, "So.. Do you still totally hate me for dragging you out tonight?"

"Not really."

She happened to look over, she saw Jacob just sitting there, watching her. And yes, for a moment, it did feel really bad, she did feel like the worst person in the world.. But he'd started all this, he'd hurt her at least ten times worse than she could have just now.

She couldn't even look at him anymore after their last fight and she had actually been actively avoiding him since then. Everything was changing.. But maybe it wouldn't be entirely bad.

"So.. Do you think he'll call?"

"I don't know.. I mean it'd be cool if he did.. It just.. I feel weird?"

"Seriously, Kylie.. Whatever is meant to happen will happen.. Whether it's with Jacob or with Tall Dark and Dangerous.."

"You noticed that too, huh?"

"Umm, duh.. Who wouldn't. If they make more like him, Kylie, I expect one for Christmas." Jessica joked as the two girls left the beach party, heading back to Charlie's house for the night.


	3. Chapter 3

**(Holy shit! I now have 8 reviews! That means everything to me, it really does. This chapter is a special request from an anon reviewer, they asked to see father daughter bonding. I also threw in a slightly funny phone conversation with Paul.. So there's a break from Jacob and Bella for this chapter, lol. I love you all for reviewing and adding this story to your alerts. It's inspiring to me, you have no idea really just how much. Anyway, yes, I wrote another chapter tonight while I had the idea for it. And there will be more because YOU GUYS ARE AWESOME!)**

* * *

CHAPTER THREE 

(Kylie / Charlie)

"I thought Saturday night was date night?" Charlie asked as Kylie walked into their living room, in her pajamas already at a surprisingly early 8 pm. Normally by now, she was getting ready to go out or over to see Jacob. He'd been working a lot more lately, there were mysterious attacks happening in and around Forks, and he was up to his eyeballs in paperwork.. Had he missed something?

She sat down and after a little wiggling around, she got into a comfortable position, her head was against his leg. He ruffled her hair and then asked, "Well?" as he looked down at her, waiting, wondering if she were sick or something, worried about her.

"It is what it is, Dad." Kylie said as she did her best to keep from letting her voice waver or crack, or giving any indication that things were seriously messed up for her lately. The last thing she wanted to do was unload on him, she knew how busy he was at the station lately. And with Bella's obvious psychotic state since Edward the freak moved, her father had more than enough problems.

"Nope, not gonna work, kiddo.. How about you tell Dad what's going on?" Charlie said as he took a few Cheetos from the bag in her arms and then said "You're not the one who doesn't talk about things, Kylie, so let's hear it."

"Jacob and I broke up." Kylie admitted.

Charlie coughed a little and asked in concern, "He wasn't trying to push you to do things though, right?"

"No, no.. Dad, seriously.. Contrary to stuff I've pulled in the past, you did raise me better than that. No, this was my decision.. And it just hurts so much that maybe I think it's the wrong one?"

"Well, why did you break up with him? I mean if you had a reason it couldn't have been the wrong decision, Kylie." Charlie said as he wondered to himself if this were something maybe warranting a call to Renee.. She handled the boy crises with Kylie for him mostly, because if it were up to Charlie, Kylie would have been thrown into an ivory tower with the key taken away the second she turned into a teenager.

_'And maybe if you'd raised them both, Bella would be a little smarter in her own choices about boys.. At least you don't have to worry with Kylie, she seems to make well thought out choices.' _he thought to himself proudly as he asked again, "Well? What was the reason.. Maybe we can figure it out."

"I broke up with him, Dad, because he doesn't see things the way I do about certain issues. Namely the way Bella's been acting. He thinks she needs him around all the time, it was getting so that he actually stood me up to come over and hold her hand. I mean I honestly thought I.. Nevermind.. You don't want to hear that."

"Hear what?"

"That he's the guy I'd pretty much do everything with.. I mean eventually.. After dating other people here and there, of course." Kylie said as she looked at her father a few moments, then sighed as she shook her head and tried to get into the football game on tv, hoping that maybe if she did, he would to.. Because it was too hard to tell her father what was really going on when he was at work.

"Okay, I get what you're saying.. But this is what I think about that, Kylie.. I think that if he stood you up and he stopped spending time with you, if he started treating you less like a girlfriend.."

"Dad, he got so that he was treating me like less of a friend too.. That's what hurt the most.. This isn't about the whole relationship thing.. This is just me hurting because I'm going to lose my best friend. Because I just.. I cannot sit back and watch him keep helping her when she doesn't want the help."

"I know what you mean." Charlie said quietly as he found the television being flipped from his game to Supernatural. He raised a brow and then ruffling her hair he said quietly, "You've been handling everything a lot better than I probably would have at your age. And from the sound of it, Kylie, you made the right decision. You can't settle for someone who doesn't value you, who's not going to always be there."

Kylie nodded and wiped at her eyes as she said quietly, "It's just awkward.."

"I completely understand. Is that all? You know you can talk to me about things, right?" Charlie asked as Kylie nodded and said with a smile, "I always have.. I didn't right away about this because it was so centered around Bella and I didn't want to cause problems?"

"Yeah, well.. Your sister really has me wondering lately.. And if she starts doing with Jacob what she was doing with Edward then I'm going to know it wasn't either guy, it was just her. I don't know where her head is, she's supposed to be older.. You're her little sister, she shouldn't be doing things like this that wind up hurting you."

"Dad, don't.. Like just don't say anything to her.. I just want this to be between us.. She already hates me enough."

"Because you told me she left for Phoenix and why?"

"Basically, yes. And now she's got Jacob and frankly, if what she's pulling got him, I didn't need him as a boyfriend or a friend."

"I still think I should say something to her."

"Just leave it alone, Dad.. Please? It's just a breakup, I'll be okay."

"But you telling me she's doing this isn't."

"Well, if he's always wanted to be closer to her more, then that's his business not mine. I'm just done.. It just hurts, that's all.. You think you know someone, you go your entire life being their best friend and one day everything changes." Kylie said as she sighed and shrugged it off, flipping the channel back to the football game, looking up at her father a few moments.

"I'm off tomorrow.. I thought we could get up early and go fishing.. If he's coming to see her or she's going to bring him over, would that make it less awkward?" Charlie asked as he looked down at Kylie, worried.. Would she go into the same state Bella did when that jerk of a kid Edward left? He wasn't sure he could handle two teenage girl meltdowns.

"It would, yes."

"I'll even let you catch the bigger fish this time."

"Dad, I caught the bigger fish last time. You caught every tree on the bank, remember?"

"Funny, my child, you are hilarious. But if memory serves, it was me that caught the bigger fish."

"Dad, it was a minnow."

"But technically, when you used it to bait your hook, and you caught that fish you caught, Kylie, I caught it.. Because it ate my minnow."

"Good point."

"You're okay, right? Nothing other than that?" Charlie asked, a concerned look on his face as he admitted, "Because if you go into meltdown mode, kiddo, I don't know what I'll do."

"Dad, no.. That was stupid when she did it.. With me its more or less losing my best friend in the process.. Because I can't stay friends with him and watch him keep trying to help someone who obviously doesn't want to be helped."

"That whole thing.. That has to come from Renee." Charlie mused as Kylie shrugged and pointed out, "I just visit.. But yeah, it probably does."

They sat there quietly for a moment and then the phone in the kitchen started to ring. Kylie raised up from her spot on the couch and raised a brow at her father as she asked, "You expecting a call?"

"Nope.. It's probably Jessica.."

"Doubtful, she went to a movie with some guy named Carver tonight.. It must not have been going that well because she was texting me the entire time they were in Chili's eating."

"And you didn't go?"

"Nah, I wanted to spend time with you."

The phone kept ringing and finally, Kylie jumped up and grumbling, made her way into the kitchen, picking it up...

* * *

(Paul/Kylie, background people on either end)

"Paul, it's almost 10." Jared pointed out as Paul stared at the phone in his hand, waiting on it to be answered or an answering machine to pick up or something. It was insane, the urge just to hear her voice was.

He'd been just about to hang up when he heard someone picking up.

"Hello?"

"Is Kylie there?"

"This is Kylie.. Wait, who is this?" Kylie asked, brow raised as she looked at the phone. It hit her then and she palmed her forehead. She heard her dad asking, "Who is it?"

"It's for me, Dad."

"Oh, okay.. This game's going nowhere. They still have that one referee making calls that clearly indicate that his head is still firmly lodged up his ass." Charlie said as he turned his attention back to the game.

Paul chuckled as he heard Kylie talking to her dad and he asked casually, "What game?"

"Just a football game I was watching with Dad.. We're both getting pissed off at the referees. What are you up to tonight?" Kylie asked, smiling a little to herself.. She'd figured that he'd probably not call, especially not the very next night after she'd given him her phone number. The fact that he did definitely surprised her.

"You sound surprised." Paul said as he smirked, laughing a little before yelling, "Damn it, Jared.. You just killed me, man.. I'm on your team. You're supposed to snipe the other guys." and turning his attention back to the call quickly as he said "Sorry.. We're trying to prove to some little punks that we can beat their kill record in Call of Duty."

"I am a little.." Kylie admitted as she laughed at Paul's outburst and then asked, "So.. Is this an every Saturday thing?"

"Nah, just tonight. Is the watching sports an every Saturday thing?"

"Not really.. Jess, she's my friend from the bonfire.. She went on a date with some guy named Carver and I didn't feel like going. She even tried enticing me with Chili's."

Paul chuckled a little and then admitted, "I love their ribs."

"Me too. I tried once to eat nearly all my weight in them I think.. That was a fun night for my dad. I've never been so sick in my life. But hey, he kept telling me I'd never eat more than half a rack." Kylie admitted, laughing a little as she hopped up onto the counter to sit.

Paul raised a brow, he thought he heard her fall or something.

"Did you fall?"

"Me? You heard me getting on the kitchen counter.. I sit here when I talk on the phone. My dad's old school in that he still has a phone with a cord in it." Kylie said as her father called out from the den, "Because if it isn't broke you don't fix it."

Paul chuckled and then asked, "So you and your dad are close, huh?"

"Mhmm.. I stayed here when Mom and my idiot sister left. I've lived with Dad my whole life. I think I see my mom maybe a few times a year? It's bad, I know, I've just been closer to my dad.." Kylie admitted as she leaned back, took a bite of an apple from the bowl of fruit her father kept on the counter and then laughed as she said "Worried or something?"

"Not really.. I think it's kinda cute, actually." Paul admitted, swearing for a moment when again, Jared tried to shoot something else on the game and shot his character instead. "I'm now convinced Jared's trying to kill me virtually."

"So? Snipe him back." Kylie joked as she took another bite of the apple and laughed a little. Considering their first ever conversation had been so strange, this one was going surprisingly well. She was actually finding that she felt a little happier than she had before she'd answered the phone.

"So.. Do you go cliff diving, Kylie?"

"I have before, yes." Kylie said as she nearly choked on the apple she was eating, gaped at the phone for a moment.. Was he making conversation or was he hinting at something?

"Do you think you'd want to after school on Monday?" Paul asked, avoiding Jared's firm gaze. Sam wouldn't be mad, Paul figured, as long as he and Jared were there with him when he saw his imprint.

"Yeah. I think I'd like that." Kylie answered, shocked a little. He'd just asked her to go cliff diving with him.. Was it a date or were they just hanging out as friends? She kept her questions to herself, she was trying actively to avoid getting hurt again like she had by Jacob.

All Paul wanted, most likely, was to be friends with her.

"Cool.. So I'll come get you from school.. I mean if that's okay?"

"Yeah, it's cool. I'll tell my dad when we're off the phone. I don't think it'll matter." Kylie said as she laughed a little and then twisted a strand of hair around her fingertips, trying like hell to think of something to talk about.

"Awesome." Paul said as he nudged Jared because Jared mouthed, 'The hell, man, Sam is going to kick your ass.'

He didn't care in all honesty, he wanted to see Kylie, so he was going to do that. If he spent limited time with her, he didn't see how he'd ever learn to control himself around her. And he wanted to learn how to control the wolf just a little.

Sometimes that side came in handy, but he didn't want to hurt Kylie or anything so he did understand what Sam was saying to some degree.. He just didn't want to be away from Kylie too much either.

Especially not with Jacob, annoying little shit he was, waiting in the wings.

"I might come out a little late.. I have cheerleading practice, we actually made it to State Finals." Kylie said as she bit her lower lip and laughed a little adding, "It surprised me because two of our tumblers were out half the season."

"You're a cheerleader?"

"Duh, Dad wouldn't let me actually play.. I'm not that girly." Kylie said as she heard him laugh, it made her smile. Something about talking to him was just easy, it felt comforting, like when she talked to her dad about stuff.

"Yeah, well, I sort of thought you were." Paul admitted, laughing a little as he added, "Not that it's a bad thing.. It's kinda cute. You guys practice in the gym, right?"

"Yeah."

"If I happen to get there early, Kylie, I might come in and watch you. If that's cool?"

"I.. Yeah, I don't mind." Kylie said as she felt this sort of smoldering wave of heat in the pit of her stomach. She bit her lower lip, there was something about the way he just announced things, it was a turn on.

Like he didn't ask, he just said he'd do something.

_'But it's not Monday yet, Kylie.. If Monday comes and he doesn't show.. Maybe you don't get your hopes up?' _her mind argued with her as she laughed a little at herself.

Jared was giving Paul a dirty look by now, the other team they were playing online were basically wiping the floor with him. He hated to but he didn't want to stay on the phone too long with her and get her into trouble, either. "I've gotta go. Jared's being a bitch.. I'll call you tomorrow though, I mean if that's okay."

"I'd like that.. Oh.. Call my cell phone though. I'm going fishing with my dad and we're probably going to be gone over half the day." Kylie said as she stretched and looked at the time on the clock that hung on their kitchen wall, gaping a moment.

It was almost midnight. She'd just spent nearly two hours talking to Paul.

After they hung up the phone, she walked back into the den and hugged Charlie then said "I'm gonna go up to bed.. So we can get up early and go."

"Night, Kylie.. If you want to talk some more about this thing with Jacob.."

"I will, Dad."

"Okay.. Well I'm going to bed soon too. This game was a total letdown."

"You have to look who was playing."

"Funny."


	4. Chapter 4

**(Wowza! I now have 12 reviews, I continue to be amazed! I LOVE YOU ALL SO MUCH! And your reviews are definitely inspiring and pushing me to keep the story coming, so much so that I'm actually researching things for far off future chapters, ;p**

**I didn't really break this one into sections either, so if it's confusing, I'm sorry.**

**!DOMINANT/WOLF Paul in this chapter, ladies.. Because, unff damnnnnn..**

**Okay, so there's a few things about this chapter I need to point out/clear up.. Bella still sees Laurent first.. And the pack still scares him off.. But he is still lurking and Kylie sees him too.. And Paul scares him off.. There will be a third time, he'll go after Bella, that will be the time it happens in the book/movie (it won't be in the story because I fucking hate Bella and am writing her in as little as possible) and THEN the wolves will kill him.. **

**Also, the thing where Paul's shifter form tells Kylie to run.. That won't be an oft recurring thing for now, perhaps in the future.. It is a special thing that the two of them can do and it might be more prominent in the story later, but for now, since the story is just starting, it's thought of as a fluke or a , this doesn't mean that Kylie has some kind of special power, it just means that the whole imprint bond in their case is mega intense. I thought it'd be neat to do this because Paul's a pretty dominant and forceful character, it makes sense that if he thinks something mentally, it might bleed through and on occasion be heard by Kylie since he's imprinted her.. Also, I was doing some digging around at some point in time and I thought (I'm not a genius, I could have been misreading or something but yeah, I thought being the key phrase here) I remembered seeing the last name Swan on a Quileute families chart or something? Anyway, that got me thinking maybe Charlie had a little Quileute in him, and this idea came.. Maybe it's due to Kylie having a small portion of Quileute in her heritage that also allows for the bleed through of thoughts.. :)**

**Other note.. This is more father/daughter bonding, Harry makes an appearance because this is before he dies (and I loved the character). He's sort of serving to warn Kylie that things are happening she needs to be aware of.**

**All apologies for the erratic and sort of rushed feel that the wording in this chapter has. I really did take my time with it, I just got this super intense adrenaline rush when I started to write it.. Also, I apologize for the way Kylie reacts.. She's weird when she's afraid, when the adrenaline gets flowing, she sort of overcompensates and becomes mouthy.. Because she's used to having to fend for herself. Also, when Laurent freezes her, he's using a glamour, which is a mental thing that they use in some real vampire movies/stories/etc.. I know he probably can't in the series canon verse, but this is AU and so I'm assuming that if he chose, yes he could. **

**Also..There will be more minor changes to the events of the remainder of the series, I should warn you all about that now too, I suppose.. But only minor changes.**

**Enough with the long and annoying ass notes.. On with the chapter, shall we? )**

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CHAPTER FOUR

(Kylie/ Laurent/Wolf Paul/Charlie &amp; Harry)

She made her way out into the clearing just a few yards away from the river she and Charlie were fishing on for the day, a thicket of trees seperating herself from her father, because she really, really had to pee. For some strange reason, the hairs on the back of her neck were standing at attention, she found herself straining to hear. It felt like someone else was in the clearing, like she was being watched.

She knelt down to tie her Converse after doing what she'd stepped through the bushes and into a secluded spot to do, and she nearly jumped about a foot in the air when the man appeared out of essentially nowhere, studying her intently, stepping close to her, making major invasions on her personal space bubble rule. The first thing she noticed about the man was not his 'beauty' like her sister wrote about some of these things in her journal.

_'__whatever they were__ because __she__ wasn't an idiot, they couldn't possibly be human, their eyes just looked so.. weird, dead or something__'_ she thought to herself quietly..

No, it wasn't their so called beauty according to her halfwit sister's words as described in the journal.. However,it was his almost glowing red eyes she noticed first.. They looked like burning embers in a dying fire. They had this cold and uncaring feel to them also, as if he'd screw anyone and everyone who got into his path over.

"You mind maybe backing the fuck off?" Kylie asked as she stepped back and the man sniffed her yet again. He smirked at her and she rolled her eyes, brandished her scouts knife in his direction and used it as she pointed to the path out of the woods. "You leave that way, hobo. Or you could take your chances with this thing.. It does pretty well with skinning fish.."

"I don't scare you just a little?" Laurent asked, his voice coming out almost silky as he did so.. This one's scent.. It was just a shade more bland than her sister's scent.. He'd had the fortune to get close to Bella Swan nearly a week before when the stupid girl wandered into a clearing, crying and upset. Damned wolves, however, chased him off before he could actually do anything to her.

This girl, however.. She seemed to be made of slightly stronger yet still equally fragile stuff than her sibling. It made him curious, naturally. And he didn't think anyone or anything would stand in his way this time, he basically had a free meal because she was expendable, Victoria wasn't looking for her, Victoria only seemed interested in Bella.

"If you come any closer, I swear to God, I'll scream. And my dad, man, he's a cop.. With a gun and a taser. He's the closest thing Forks PD has to an expert marksman, actually. Are you really sure you want to mess with me any further?"

"You're not nearly as mouth watering as the other one, but it's a free meal." Laurent started to say quietly as he moved even closer to the girl. He stared at her intently, intending to hypnotize and effectively paralyze her so that he could feed. He stood so close that he realized he could literally hear and see her fear of him.. She hid it well to anyone who wasn't a predator, wouldn't be aware of what to look for in their prey... But her heart racing away in her chest, the dilation of her pupils and the widening of her eyes told an entirely different tale altogether. It intrigued him, it really did.

Kylie did the only thing that came to her other than screaming bloody murder and falling to the ground in a dead faint.. Her fist curled and she swung it, the man ducked, this laughter that sounded almost like bells tinkling came out. She wanted to snicker because the sound really did not sound masculine at all, it wasn't a laugh like her fathers or Jacob's and it definitely wasn't deep and husky like the sound of Paul when he'd laughed on the phone the night before.

After the swing of her fist and the missed attempt at punching this guy in the nose, she was shocked to find that for some weird reason, she could not move from the spot she stood in, there was this strange hypnotic look in the man's eyes. Instinct told her to clear her mind.. She did this often with freakboy because Bella claimed he could hear her thoughts, so it wasn't a big deal to make herself not think.. Or she thought it wouldn't be, to start with.. But then she had this thought come into her mind, completely at random.. Maybe it was because she was freaking out and thinking about how the wildest thing she'd done lately was to dance with a candid and sexy stranger on the beach under the light of the moon.

Mentally, she kicked herself, thinking about a guy she barely knew when clearly she needed to be getting the hell out of Dodge, she should have already gone, the problem with this, of course, is that she couldn't move and she was getting more and more freaked out by the second..

When he said what he did about her not being as mouth watering as the other one, she realized this meant that yes, he'd apparently met her sister.

"God.. What is it about that annoying succubus twit?" she grumbled to herself, looking at the man as she said aloud, " Naturally, my sister the freak magnet." and tried again to move only to find that again, she couldn't. The man was stepping closer now, her heart was racing, she tried to punch again or do one of the basic self defense moves her dad made her learn when she was about twelve or so because Forks PD promoted him to Chief and that meant he was almost always at work in the afternoons. But of course, she still couldn't move, her feet and hands were still essentially frozen. If she tried to scream, nothing wanted to come out. This guy was really scaring the hell out of her, despite all her best efforts to not show it, to rescue herself and get safely back to her father.

* * *

A low growl from behind them and the sudden appearance of a large and physically imposing, dark silver wolf, crouched and ready to strike gave her just the chance she needed to run.. And as she looked into the wolf's eyes, for whatever reason, it was almost like someone speaking to her (_why does it sound like Paul talking to me right now, _she wondered for a split second), clearly telling her in her mind "Run".

_'Leave you alone for a day, Kitten and damned if the leeches aren't prowling. It's okay, I got this.. Just run.. Run now. Damn it, Kitten, run!' _the wolf thought as frantically as it could, not realizing just how powerful the thought was, while holding the gaze of it's mate, Kylie, who right now looked more afraid than he'd probably seen anyone in their lives before.

He closed in on the damned leech and with a laugh, much to the wolf's frustration, the sounds of Kylie's dad and Harry Clearwater laughing loudly on the other side of the trees and calling Kylie's name to check on her scared the leech off once more.. This would only make the second time the slippery bastard evaded his eventual death and now, the wolf was going to take great personal pleasure in killing this particular leech.

Growling, the wolf took off after it, chasing it, thinking that at the very least, his howls and growling would alert Sam and Jared and he could lure the leech into a trap of sorts. But naturally, this didn't happen, the bastard vanished without a trace, the scent trail died just seconds before reaching the treaty line. They were getting closer. If they violated the treaty and the wolf was fully aware of this and very much wanted them to do so, then all bets were off. The wolves could and most likely would attack at will.

_'Mine you disgusting shit. And next time.. I'm killing you.' _the wolf thought as he started to return to the La Push side of the line with the other members of his pack, angry. The second he was in human form again, he swung at the nearest tree trunk and turned to Sam as he asked in anger, "Can we kill all of the sons of bitches now? Because if I see that one again, Uley, he's fucking done."

"Paul.. Calm down.. Easy killer.. Sooner or later, man, they'll mess up. And then we'll get our hands on 'em." Jared said as calmly as he could, Paul shaking his head as he glared into the wood and then said "Yeah, well she's mine.. And nothing is going to hurt her.. And if I see that guy again, I don't care if he's a thousand lightyears on the other side of that line, guys.. I'm ripping him apart."

Sam nodded, agreeing as he spoke up and asked quietly, "She was alright, wasn't she?"

"Yeah, just scared to death, I think.. I don't think seeing my wolf side helped but hey.. She's still alive so it worked out. Now do you see what I mean about me spending time with her, Uley? This is a slightly different case than the thing with you and Emily entirely. I'm working my ass off to learn to control it.. But I can't protect her, Uley, if you're not letting me near her that often."

"We'll figure something out, Paul.. Let's go inside for now, try to figure out where they might be hiding now. That other place was deserted at least a few days before we found it." Sam said as the three shifters walked into Sam and Emily's house.

* * *

Kylie found herself able to move maybe a half second after thinking she heard the word run spoken aloud in her mind and she did just as she was told, shoving past the strange man who'd somehow managed to mentally paralyze her moments before, she bolted through the clearing and out to the river where her father and Harry Clearwater sat on the bank, drinking a beer each and fishing, talking quietly amongst themselves.

"Are you okay, Kylie?"

"What's wrong with you, Kycat?" Harry asked his best friend's daughter, a look of concern in his eyes. His senses went into high alert, thanks to the shifter he used to be, he could still pick up the faintest scent of death on the wind.

"A man.. Daddy, there was a man in the woods just now when I went to use the bathroom and check my texts.. He sniffed me and he was being weird and... A wolf came.. Beyond that, I don't know what happened because I could finally move I wasn't frozen in terror anymore..So I got the hell out of dodge." Kylie said in a rush as she flopped down onto the blanket she sat on on the ground, her hand over her chest as she struggled to catch her breath.

_'If that son of a bitch was looking for Bella and he'd have killed me.. That would have been it and that would have been her damned fault.. If that wolf hadn't come along.. That wolf saved my life.. That wolf had almost human looking eyes.. And I know I heard something in my head, telling me to run.. This is too fucking weird.. But I can't tell my dad all of it, he'd think I'm losing my mind or something.. I have to get a grip, damn it, I'm sure later once the adrenaline and stuff's worn off the whole incident will make more sense..Who the hell am I kidding? It's not gonna and I know it..' _Kylie's mind raced practically a mile a minute and she found herself strangely enough, worried about the safety of the wolf in the woods that saved her life just moments before.

The two men shared a look and Harry eyed Kylie a few moments. Charlie asked his daughter firmly, "What did this man look like? Is he still out there, Kylie? If he is, tell me now.. This could be a huge help to Dad.. You're okay, right?" as he looked her over, worried that something might have happened, worried that the strange man might have attacked her or something.

"I'm okay, Dad, it's just the guy.. He was creepy. He kept talking about how I was a free meal or something. I think he was crazy.."

A howl echoed throughout the forest and Charlie stood, going for the gun in his police issued holster that he kept on his person at all times and for whatever reason Kylie stopped her dad and said "Don't shoot the wolf, Dad.. It.. If the wolf hadn't come along, I'd be a lady skin suit right now like in that movie Silence of the Lambs or something."

"I'm going to see if this man is still there. Hopefully, Kylie, I won't have to shoot anything." Charlie said as he turned to Harry and said "Keep an eye out here. If the man comes out or something, let me know. The wolf probably scared him off but I want to catch this jerk."

"Yeah, there aren't too many who want to meet with a wolf in the woods, or an angry father for that matter, right, Swan?" Harry asked as he watched Charlie going through the bushes. Then he turned his attention to Kylie and asked her in concern, "That man.. What color were his eyes?"

"They were red."

"And the wolf.. He was alone?"

"Mhmm.. But when I was halfway through the trees I heard at least three more howls.. And the guy was gone.. When he ran, Harry, it was weird, like it was a blur or something? I'm not crazy, I swear to God." Kylie said as she looked at her father's best friend.

Harry took a sip of his beer and then said quietly, "I know.. And that wolf was trying to save your life just now, girl.. There are things happening.. They can't be explained. They shouldn't even be happening. Stay on your toes, Kycat."

"Yes sir.. Definitely." Kylie said as she bit her lower lip and swore as her scouts knife tip poked at her leg, reminding her that she'd gotten it out, forgotten to fold it back before shoving it into her pocket. She winced and looked down, the slash in her jeans and the small sliver of blood. "Damn it.. Well there goes this pair of fishing jeans."

"Why was your knife in your pocket unfolded, girl?"

"Maybe because I pulled it on that weirdo?"

Harry snickered a moment and his facial expression went serious as he looked at the small sliver of blood on her leg, handing her a paper towel as he remarked casually, " In all seriousness, Kycat.. If you see another of those things, it's best to run."

Charlie walked back out a few moments later, shaking his head. "The wolves scared whoever it was off. But I think that just to be safe, we should move to our other fishing spot, don't you, Harry?"

"Agreed. I wasn't catching anything to begin with." Harry admitted as they began loading the gear and the cooler with their food and drinks into the back of Harry's truck to move to another spot, a clearing beneath a bridge a little closer to town.

"Are you okay, Kylie?" Charlie asked his daughter again once they were in the truck. Kylie nodded, but internally, she was thinking to herself about Harry's warning, that bizarre incident in which she'd almost swear that she heard the wolf (or someone,something) telling her mentally to run and how it somehow broke through the spell of the temporary fear paralysis had her under at the time.. Or how the man thing had almost glowing and cold red eyes..

Kind of like the last one she'd seen, the one who came after Bella last year..

What the hell was going on in Forks and La Push?


	5. Chapter 5

**(Wowza! I now have 15 reviews, I continue to be amazed! I LOVE YOU ALL SO MUCH! And your reviews are definitely inspiring and pushing me to keep the story coming, so much so that I'm actually researching things for far off future chapters, ;p**

**This chapter is a little angsty, be warned. But it sort of establishes Kylie being totally done with the shit show that is Jacob x Bella x Edward. And it sort of gives Jacob and Paul a pre existing dislike for each other, mostly because Jacob isn't a shifter yet, but he sort of suspects that Sam, Jared and Paul are and he doesn't like the idea of Paul with Kylie for that reason. So it's not him wanting her back or missing her. It's Paul being with her, even if right now, it's just as a friend. I'm sort of moving through the phases of the bond I suppose. Also, I'd apologize for Kylie telling Bella off but I'm honestly not sorry. I hate Bella. On another note, sorry if it's OOC with anyone, I'm doing my best to capture each person in the story I just don't feel like I am? I hope I am, anyways..**

**This chapter takes place probably about two or three weeks after Jacob first saw Paul with Kylie, when they were dancing on the beach. It also sort of hints at Jacob's frustration with Bella pining over Edward. I wanted to have the two of them (Paul and Jacob) wolf out now, but I'm saving that, I sort of have my own twist for the way it actually happened in the books/movies in mind for a later time.. So again, sorry if it's taken to be OOC because both are known hot heads and instead of beating the crap out of each other, they sort of didn't. But I'm sort of trying to follow the timelines of the series?**

**God I hope this doesn't suck ass. Anywho, I LOVE YOU ALL FOR REVIEWING AND ADDING MY STORY TO YOUR LISTS! On with the chapter now, I know you guys are sitting there like 'The fuck? Can we just read the damn chapter now maybe?' lol.)**

* * *

CHAPTER FIVE

If I could go back in time  
I'd say those three words  
I shoulda woulda coulda said it back to you  
And this can't be saved if you can't be found  
You hung up and left me for dead on the ground  
You didn't even say goodbye

Shoulda, Hinder

(Paul/Kylie/Jacob,,Bella)

He gaped at her as she stepped out of Jared Cameron's jeep with Paul Lahote, Jared Cameron and Jared's girlfriend Kim. He hadn't been expecting to see her at First Beach today, and he definitely hadn't been expecting to see her with Paul Lahote, who he didn't particularly care for in all honesty.

He'd been telling himself since that night about two or three weeks before when he'd seen her slow dancing with Paul on the beach that she was just trying to rub her being single in his face or something. And he'd been doing fine convincing himself that was an actual fact until just now.

"Jacob, are we going cliff diving or not?" Bella asked, annoyed as she followed the direction of Jacob's intent gaze and saw that he was watching her little sister who was with two other guys and another girl. She tugged at his hand and he snatched it out of her hand and glared.

"What's with you lately, Jacob?"

"What's with me, Bella? You seriously have to ask me that? Every other word out of your mouth is about damned Edward Cullen. You only hang out with me, Bella, because you don't have him."

"Jacob, don't say that." Bella pleaded as she looked up at him, confused. Lately, his moods had been all over the place. He got angry one hell of a lot quicker than he ever had before and he wasn't happy like she was used to. Was he ge tting tired of her too?

Suddenly she found herself desperate.

Jacob watched Paul, Jared, Kim and Kylie walking past and as they did, he called Kylie's name.

Paul turned and gave him probably the meanest look he'd ever seen anyone give another person and Kylie bit her lower lip, scooting closer to Paul as if to stop him from getting angry.

"I just want to talk to you a minute, Kylie."

Kylie looked up at Paul and said quietly, "I'll be right back. I should at least see what the jerk wants.. Just wait right here, please?." as she made her way over to Jacob.

Paul glared at Jacob, he was literally three seconds away from a phase happening, right out in the wide open. Did Jacob not see that Kylie was here with him? Jacob had his chance, the little shit had blown it.

He took a deep breath, shoved his hands into his pocket and called out to Jacob, " Maybe she got tired of chicken shits who treated her like crap."

Kylie grumbled to herself a little as she saw Jacob getting his usual pissed off look in his eyes and she muttered to herself quietly, "If Jacob starts a fight I swear to God.." as she stopped in front of Jacob and said quietly, " What?"

Bella looked from Kylie to Jacob, to the group of people Kylie was on the beach with today. She'd been spending a lot of time with these people lately, Jacob seemed to get more and more pissed each time he saw her out somewhere with them. It was starting to seem as if Jacob was slipping right through her hands and she hated that.

"Does Charlie know you're out with him again?" Bella asked pointedly as she looked at her sister, an angry look in her eyes for a split second. She dropped it quickly as Jacob turned to look at her and told her basically to butt out, this was a personal conversation between him and Kylie. Bella gaped at him in shocked silence and stepped back, waving her hands as she grumbled to herself and glared angrily at her sister when she wasn't looking.

Kylie ignored Bella's question. It wasn't her business. Just like it wasn't Jacob's business either, but when he repeated the question, she glared up at him, arms crossed as she said quietly, "Actually, Jake, Paul has been picking me up from school every now and then. We're friends. So yes, not that it's any of your damned business, but my father does in fact know where I am."

Jacob's gaze settled on Paul and he asked in a slightly louder tone than his usual, "Does he realize that guy's a prick asshole?"

Paul popped his knuckles and if Jared hadn't caught him and reminded him that if he wolfed out right here, right now, in front of Kylie, that was it, he couldn't see her anymore until he went a really long time without incident, he'd have gladly wolfed out and made the little shit piss himself. He took a few deep breaths and fought to stay calm. It wasn't working that well, but damn it, he was trying.

Kylie gaped at Jacob and started to turn and walk off but she stopped in her tracks as Jacob asked in a quieter voice, almost sad sounding, "What happened to the bracelet?"

She sighed and looked at him as she said quietly, "Don't make me do this here, Jake."

"Well?"

"Damn it, Jacob, do not get into this here."

"Why not here? You're not returning my texts or my calls and whenever I'm over at your house you're gone somewhere with Jess or with that jerk I guess." Jacob said angrily as he nodded in Paul's direction.

Paul growled to himself and called out angrily, "Got a problem, Black?"

"Actually, Paul.." Jacob started, but Kylie glared up at him and said through gritted teeth, "We're done, Jacob. You chose my sister. I'm moving on."

"You won't even be my friend?"

"I can't, Jacob.. I won't because I refuse to watch you drop everything and rush to her side whenever she makes something up and supposedly 'needs you'. I needed you, Jacob. But I wasn't enough." Kylie said as she took a few deep breaths and then said quietly and in a deathly calm voice, "I burnt it. The bracelet."

"Oh. So you're really doing this.. You're going to just stop having anything to do with me? That won't work, Kylie and you know it.. We had something.. And I miss it." Jacob said as he looked at her, his stomach churning as he started to really realize just how much he'd neglected her both as a friend and a boyfriend.

He stiffened when he heard Bella calling his name, impatient, desperate again. "Coming, damn it." he snapped as he looked at Kylie and sighed, shook his head. "It hurts, Kylie."

"So now you see how I felt." Kylie said even though deep down, it was taking everything in her not to just 'kiss and make up'. For some reason, having had ample time to actually think and step back, evaluate things between herself and Jacob, while this conversation in it's entirety hurt like hell, it didn't hurt as badly as she'd imagined it hurting so often in her mind while she'd been avoiding him just to avoid having this final conversation of sorts.

"You still feel something. You have to."

"The fact remains, Jacob, I'm tired of being the silver medal to someone. I want to be the gold." Kylie muttered as she shook her head and Jacob glared angrily at Paul as he asked her through gritted teeth, "But that jerk? The manwhore of La Push High?"

"He's my friend, Jacob. And he's never been anything but sweet to me."

"There's nothing sweet about that asshole. Did you know he actually punched me? The Monday after we broke up he basically nails me in the back of the head when I'm walking down the hallway."

Kylie looked at Paul a few moments as if it concerned her, hearing this, and on some level it did.. But something in her kept telling her that there was a whole lot more to the story than Jacob was obviously telling her. There had to be.

"Hello.. Are we going, Jacob? It's getting late."

"Fuck off, Bella." Kylie snapped, surprising both herself and apparently, her sister, if the look on Bella's face was anything to go by. "Instead of hovering and giving me go to hell looks, Bella, you could go ahead and wait. Or can you do nothing by yourself?" Kylie asked, snapping at her sister.

It wasn't something she did often and it wasn't something she'd proudly admit, but when she finally said that out loud instead of in her mind, directly to Bella, she did feel a certain degree of satisfaction.

Paul snickered a little looking from Bella, back to his imprint. He edged closer, Jacob looked as if he were about to be stupid enough to try and grab her or something, and if the little shit touched her, Paul was going to deck him at least.

Jared gave Paul a warning look and Paul shrugged it off, kept walking, moving so that he stood directly behind Kylie, looking at Jacob with a menacing sneer. "Yeah, I punched him, Kylie." Paul admitted as Jacob looked at Kylie as if to say 'See? I told you he wasn't an angel', before Paul continued, "But I had a damned good reason, okay?"

"What was the reason?"

"Black treats people like shit. I got sick of it, okay?" Paul said as he asked Kylie, "You're not mad.. Right?" for a moment actually looking a little worried. He actually sort of was.. He knew Jacob well enough to know that Jacob and Kylie had been friends since their diaper phase practically. But he knew Kylie well enough now to know that she was starting to realize the longer she stayed away from Jacob that he'd never actually cared about her as much as he had her sister.. That in Jacob's eyes, she'd always be second place. Still, he worried that Jacob would sweet talk her or something. It had him in a state of internal uproar.

Kylie didn't answer Paul, for a moment, she stood there just sort of thinking, sort of picking up on some huge hidden thing between the two males in question and feeling highly uncomfortable because of it. She wasn't like her sister, she didn't need two guys competing for her. She didn't thrive on being some kind of modern day Helen of Troy.

Finally, she did manage to answer Paul. "I'm not mad.. I mean it's sort of obvious you two haven't gotten along ever."

Jacob looked from Kylie to Paul and then shook his head. "You're changing because of him, Kylie."

"You're just pissed, Black, because she's moving on, she's not doing what her batshit crazy sister would and pining away over you." Paul remarked out loud.

Jacob started towards him and Kylie stepped between them. She pointed to her sister and then reminded Jacob quietly, "You made your choice, Jake. And I'm sorry but maybe this is how it's gotta be. It's like I said.. I don't want to be somebody's silver medal. I'm done with it. I wanna be somebody's gold medal. Stop trying to bait Paul into getting pissed and fighting with you just so you can make him look bad."

He sighed.. She really hadn't changed that much, she was nothing if not loyal to a fault to people she considered close to her. Apparently, now Paul was inner circle and he was on the outside. And Jacob hated that. It hurt worse than he really thought it would.

He glared at Paul a moment. He'd figured out by now, there was something decidely off about Paul, Jared and Sam Uley.. And for a moment, he seriously considered telling Kylie, if for nothing more than to warn her, to try and prove he did still care about her and he genuinely meant it when he said he missed her and wanted another chance.

Instead, he sighed and shook his head, stormed off down the beach past Bella who took off after him after looking at Kylie and saying in a snippy tone, "I hope you're happy, Kylie. Did you really have to be such a bitch? He really is taking the breakup harder than you think."

"So? He's your problem now, Bella. This is what you wanted, you kept at it until you got it. Go on, enjoy it. Because as you can see, Bella, I'm perfectly fine." Kylie said as she stood on tiptoe slightly, getting into her sister's face. God she wanted nothing more than to knock that annoying expressionless look off Bella's face.

Paul quickly grabbed for Kylie and chuckling he said "Let's go.. It's like you tell me when I get pissed.. Not worth it." as he gave Bella a smirk and she glared up at him hatefully as she informed him, "You're the entire reason she's being this way."

Paul froze and was about to do something but Kylie tugged on the sleeve of his white t shirt and shook her head when she looked up at him as she said quietly, "Did you not tell me they weren't worth it? Let's just go already.. I wanna cliff dive."

"Let's go." Paul said as he and Kylie walked away, headed in the general direction that Jared and Kim had already gone in. Once they were out of sight, Paul stopped them and asked Kylie quietly, "You're okay, right?"

"Paul, it's totally fine.. Oddly enough, I'm not nearly the wreck I told you I thought I'd be when I finally had to stop avoiding them. And I just.. I feel like now that it's out, I'll be okay." Kylie admitted as she looked up and said quietly, "You have been a really, really great friend through all of this."

"I'm glad." Paul said as he looked down at her a few moments, dying to kiss her, knowing that maybe waiting a little longer was better. He knew that despite all claims, she still needed time to get that little shit Jacob completely out of her system.. She'd known the guy a lifetime, that was a hard bond to break, a lifelong friendship.

If the kid kept pushing it though, Paul was almost one hundred percent certain he'd wind up phasing and kicking his ass before it was all over with.

"Sorry about all that. I swear to God, I don't get him.. He didn't have to do all that right out where everybody could hear it. If I wanted it to be public knowledge I'd hire a damned skywriter." Kylie said as she looked up at Paul and managed a smile, said gently, "Can we please just go cliff dive now? I wanna do happy things to take my mind off this crap."

"Yeah.. Let's go already." Paul said as he smiled, laughed and picked her up, putting her onto his back as he ran up the sloped dirt path that lead to the top of the cliffs. "You're hangin on, right?"

"For dear life.. Do not throw me in this time, Paul, I mean it.. Or I'll sit on you when I get out of the water."

"Ya know, I might take that the wrong way one day, Kylie." Paul said as he looked up and over his shoulder at her, smirked at her playfully.

Kylie blushed a little, muttered something he really couldn't understand and wrapped her legs around his torso tighter because she was starting to slip as she thought about how much time she'd been spending with Paul and his friends lately, how it felt more right and real than anything really had the entire time she'd known Jacob.. Also how her feelings toward Paul lately were slightly more than those that 'just friends' had for each other.

But she found herself afraid to admit it, afraid of yet again losing another friend. What if she said something about it and he didn't return the feelings and things just got really awkward? It was getting harder not to at least try to say something about how she felt but she was trying.

She'd already lost the one person she never thought she'd lose.. She didn't want to lose Paul and the thought shocked her slightly. It just felt so intense sometimes, though.

She laughed at herself having the mother of all mental debates instead of just enjoying the afternoon that lie ahead, and then she forced herself to just stop overthinking things. She'd gotten over one huge hurdle today, and she could honestly say that if she hadn't had great friends, if Paul hadn't been as good a friend as he had lately, she probably never would have told Jacob that he hadn't made her feel like his first choice in a really long time.

"You okay?"

"I'm good. Just enjoying myself." Kylie admitted as she smiled a little to herself. Maybe things were actually going to be okay again. She was doing better than she thought she'd be since breaking it off with Jacob.


	6. Chapter 6

**(HOLY HELL! I NOW HAVE 22 REVIEWS. YOU GUYS, I LOVE YOU SO MUCH, SERIOUSLY. KEEP THEM COMING, THEY'RE INSPIRING ME MORE THAN YOU EVEN KNOW. READING THEM MAKES ME SMILE AND MAKES ME ALL HAPPY AND WARM AND FUZZY INSIDE. **

**Something about this chapter.. This is mostly just more family / friend interactions. It sort of shows Kylie finally not biting her tongue, finally actively telling her sister how she really feels (or showing her rather), so yesh there is bashing. Also, it kind of hints at Kylie developing a lovely little crush on Paul. :) Who wouldn't though? I know I would.)**

* * *

CHAPTER SIX

I hope it rains on you,  
Maybe a little bit of lightning too.  
And I hope it comes a flood, lots of mud,  
Messin' up your whole day.  
Hey, hey..  
I hope it rains.

I Hope It Rains, Jana Kramer

(Kylie/Bella,, Charlie)

"Have you talked to Jacob lately, Kylie? I'm sort of worried about him, he's been distant lately.. And he hasn't been over in a few days..I'd figure that if anyone knew why, it would be you." Bella stated, taking a bite of bacon, looking at her little sister her best passive – aggressive blameful look in her eyes as she did so. It had to be because of his fight with Kylie last week. It couldn't be that he was sick of her, could it? She was worried, either way. It wasn't like Jacob to act the way he had been lately. So, Bella reasoned mentally, it had to be solely the fault of her little sister Kylie and the way she'd treated him at First Beach last week.

Kylie resisted the urge to raise the fork in her hands and stab her older sister in the eyeball for asking such an idiotic question. Murder, especially under the watchful of her police officer father and at the breakfast table might just be frowned on. Instead, she pretended not to hear Bella and poured maple syrup over her pancakes before looking up at her father and asking, "Can you pass the bacon?"

Charlie eyed Bella and Kylie. The tension was thickening, he'd never seen the two of them dance around each other or outright ignore each other the way they were currently. This told him they'd either had a huge fight and were still angry, or they were on the verge of having a huge fight any second now. He passed the bacon to Kylie and asked Bella, "Maybe you should spend more time with Angela. Or that Mike kid." giving Bella a pointed look as if to clue her into the fact that he knew what was going on, how she might have behaved a certain way that caused problems between Kylie and Jacob, caused them to stop being friends.

"Angela's busy.. And Mike's dating some girl." Bella said as she glared at Kylie when her sister was too busy stuffing her face to notice. Was their father seriously taking Kylie's side in this and not hers? It made no sense. Kylie was the reason that Jacob wasn't coming around anymore and Kylie had been the one to dump Jacob in the first place.

"Why not break them up too, Bella, that's what you're good at." Kylie muttered to herself, thinking that nobody heard her.

"That wasn't nice."

"Maybe not, Bella, but it was true.. Ya know, I find it funny.. You can hear me saying bad things about you.. Yet you couldn't hear me begging you to come out with me and the girls just one damned night when you were sitting up in your room in that damned chair staring out the window like a blipping idiot." Kylie said as she clenched the edge of the table, biting her cheek literally.

She did not want to have this fight here and now. Her father went through more than enough to begin with and Kylie was determined not to make him go through the two of them fighting. She was going to be mature about it.

"Okay, girls."

"She started it, Charlie.. Or did you not hear what she said?" Bella asked, her voice raising ever so slightly as she glared at Kylie.

"Bella, you're imagining things. I said nothing to you." Kylie said innocently as she stood and walked in the direction of the sink, intending on putting her plate and the glass in. But that mischevious little voice in her head, the one we all get from time to time when somethings probably not a good idea but doing it would be so much fun kept nagging at her.

She turned around and the orange juice remaining in the glass 'accidentally' sloshed over the rim and onto her sister's back.

"I'm so sorry." Kylie made a big deal of it, seeming as genuine as she could considering her father was still sitting in the room. Bella glared at her and when their father wasn't looking, Kylie smirked a little, satisfied with herself for having dumped the orange juice onto Bella. Yeah, it wasn't an accident.

But she was sick of Bella making everything all about her. And her basically insinuating that Kylie deliberately drove Jacob away when in reality maybe, just maybe, he was finally growing a brain and a pair of balls or something, well.. It pissed Kylie off before she really realized she'd gotten pissed about it.

She'd just had it with Bella and Jacob lately.. If Bella wasn't lurking, being moody and annoying, accusing her of making Jacob stay away, Jacob was popping up whenever she'd be out somewhere with Paul and her friends and if Paul were with her, starting a fight with him, in turn making Kylie feel more uncomfortable than she'd ever felt before in her life.

She didn't like the idea of two guys fighting it out over her. It didn't thrill her. She wasn't like her sister.

"She did that on purpose."

"It was an accident, Bella, she apologized to you." Charlie pointed out as he looked at Kylie, a covert fatherly warning look as he asked, "It was an accident.."

"Yeah. If I wanted to soak her in oj, Dad, I'd have poured the entire pitcher over her head. I'm not catty like that, remember?" Kylie said as she smiled at her dad and hugged him, grabbing her book bag and her jacket, her key to the house before stopping in the front doorway to remind him, "I have practice this afternoon.. And Paul said he'd pick me up so I can go to some bonfire with him and Jared and Kim tonight.. If that's still okay?"

"It's fine. Just don't stay out too late." Charlie said as he walked over, hugged Kylie one more time and whispered, "I know you're trying." which made Kylie smile at him. "Be careful, Ky. And don't stay out too late tonight."

"Yes sir."

When Kylie was outside, Charlie fixed his attention on Bella who'd just come back downstairs from having to change her clothing where the orange juice was spilled down her back. Once she was sitting again, she looked at Charlie and said quietly, "That Paul guy is her whole problem lately, he has to be."

" And what's yours?" Charlie asked casually as he eyed his daughter and then admitted, "Kylie talked to me a few nights ago.. About her and Jacob breaking up.. Did you have anything to do with that, Bella?"

"She says I did. I didn't, I swear."

"Well, I think that maybe you were inserting yourself into the situation a little. And I think that maybe you should try to spread the time you spend with your friends out.. Just don't go back to the sitting in your room thing. If Jacob's not calling, there's no reason to accuse your sister for it. Maybe he's been busy."

"They had a huge fight at First Beach, Charlie."

"She told me about it the night it happened, Bella."

Bella grumbled to herself. This was classic Kylie, really, going straight to Charlie with every single thing that happened, only her own version of events. Bella bit her lower lip and reminded herself that Kylie had lived here her entire life, so yes, it made sense that Kylie and their father were closer.

But it was still unfair, it was almost like her father was essentially telling her right now to put on her big girl panties and deal with everything.

"Did she tell you that Paul admitted to punching Jake?"

Charlie raised a brow but pointed out, "Maybe they don't like each other. It doesn't have to be about you or Kylie, Bella, when two boys fight. If memory serves, I fought with Billy once when we were kids, it had absolutely nothing to do with a girl."

Bella stammered a moment but went silent, chewing her food, thinking about how Kylie purposely seemed to have it in her head that she was going to completely destroy Bella's life or something. And she hadn't ever been this way until more recently.

Deep down, to some degree, Bella knew that it was more her own fault than anything, but of course she wasn't ever going to acknowledge that.

"He's still not a nice guy, Charlie."

"And I didn't like Edward either.. But that didn't stop you, did it?" Charlie asked pointedly as he added, "All I'm saying, Bella, is she's your younger sister. You two shouldn't be fighting."

"I'm going to school." Bella grumbled, getting up, putting her plate and her glass into the sink, calmly storming out of the house.

She'd give Jacob a week more.. If he wasn't coming around or calling her or something she was going to go over there and confront him.

Because Kylie might not give a damn about him anymore, she might have this bizarre idea in her head about Bella's purposely stealing him from her, an excuse to dump Jacob, really, but Bella wasn't going to lose someone else. She was determined.

Her entire drive to school was filled with her trying to figure out what she might have done or why Jacob might not want to be her friend anymore.. And wondering what Edward was doing, of course.

* * *

If the sky, that we look upon  
Should tumble and fall  
And the mountain should crumble to the sea  
I won't cry, I won't cry  
No, I won't shed a tear  
Just as long as you stand, stand by me

Stand By Me, Ben E King

(Kylie/Jessica)

"She said what?"

"She basically accused me of being the reason Jacob's not stuck up her ass anymore, Jess." Kylie said as they stood by their lockers, talking about the argument she'd had with Bella back at the house. Kylie sighed and laughed as she said " She doesn't stop and think that maybe people are starting to realize she's an insane and clingy neurotic mess."

"So Jacob's not spending time with her either? But I thought that's why you broke up with him? Because he kept ditching you for her?" Jessica asked, raising a brow and then wondering aloud, "What the hell is her problem lately and why does it feel like we're the only people who seem to notice she has one? I mean seriously.. She has issues. Deep issues." as she looked at Kylie and then added, " I'm sorry, it still sucks that she did all of that, basically forced you into breaking up with Jacob, I know how much you loved him."

"It was, Jess.. But now he can't keep himself away from me when I'm out with Paul and his friends or with you and our friends.. Like at the mall the other night. There was absolutely no reason for the jerk to show up and start a verbal fight with Paul." Kylie admitted as she sighed and then shrugged, said in a quieter tone of voice, "She's always been like this. I think Dad's really starting to worry about her. And as far as Jacob goes, Jess, I'm starting to realize that maybe he didn't really love me. Maybe I was the second choice all along. Which sucks, but hey.. I'm over it.. Can we change the subject please?" Kylie begged her friend, reapplying her lipstick.

Truthfully, this was still a very tender and painful subject for her. She did her best to keep that to herself, she was doing her best to get past all this, it still hurt knowing that she couldn't even be Jacob's friend anymore without feeling anger and bitterness. She was better off, she reminded herself as she worked on switching her books over and focusing on her plans for the day with Paul, finding herself smiling, a little excited even. "On another note.. Paul's picking me up from school this afternoon again.. So I am trying to get past it all."

"Speaking of Paul... Homecoming, Kylie.. Is he coming with you? I need to know so I can hold a ticket back or something and you can give it to him. Plus, reservations for food after.. So we can get a good table this time and not a crappy one like last year.."

"Actually, Jessica, I don't know.. I mean I don't want to rush things.. We're really good friends."

"Kylie, not every guy is going to be like Jacob and use you to get to Bella." Jessica explained as she looked at her friend and then said "At least think of asking him.. We're all eating at Chili's and going bowling after.." to sort of entice Kylie into going, taking Paul as a date.

"I'll ask.. I don't have to specify if it's a date or not.. I guess it couldn't hurt?" Kylie mused as she bit her lower lip, her stomach fluttering nervously, in a sort of excited way. "Chili's and bowling, huh?"

"Yeah, the laser tag area was booked for the night." Jessica explained as she looked at Kylie and then asked with a laugh, "So.. How'd it feel to take a sort of stand against your sister?"

"Spilling that orange juice on her, Jessica, I'm not gonna lie.. It was really liberating. I mean I've bit my tongue for so long about everything she's always done to me, the way she's always treated me.. I felt good finally letting it go. Dad gave me the look though.."

"He probably understands though.. I mean you did say he's up in arms about what to do with Bella lately.. And you two are closer." Jessica pointed out as she looked at Kylie who looked a little upset.

"Yeah, I know, I know.. I just don't like making waves is all.." Kylie said as the two girls walked to their seperate classes for the day.


	7. Chapter 7

**(Holy hell.. I am up to 32 reviews now and counting, guys. I really, really love that so many people are okay with the bashing and the fact that it's sort of an alternate angle and perspective for the series from New Moon forward! I love reading what you guys have to say about it, it makes me so happy and it always makes me laugh or smile. **

**Okay, so I'm giving you guys just Kylie/Paul cuteness today.. I hope to hell Paul isn't ooc or something. I sort of feel like I got him close to IC, but I'm not sure as I've never actually tried writing his perspective before.. The 'secret waterfall' mentioned in this chapter is going to sort of become their own little hideout, I say this now just in case I give Paul a more hands on part in the events of the series left to come.. Either way, I thought he'd be the kind of guy who'd sort of have a secret place he disappeared to on his own from time to time.**

**Hopefully this isn't OOC though, and hopefully you guys like this? This is their first kiss. I did try and make it a little steamy. ;p)**

* * *

CHAPTER SEVEN

I know there is something in the wake of your smile  
I get a notion from the look in your eyes (yeah)  
You've built to love but then love falls apart,  
Your little piece of heaven turns to dark

Listen to your heart  
When he's calling for you  
Listen to your heart  
There is nothing else you can do  
I don't know where you're going and I don't know why  
But listen to your heart

Cascada, Listen To Your Heart

(Kylie/Paul)

Jessica's words from earlier kept floating around in her mind while she paced the steps in front of Forks High, waiting on Paul to come and pick her up for school. She figured that he wouldn't be alone, she figured that he'd have his friend Jared with him like usual. So she was more than a little surprised when she looked up, found him standing there, leaning against his father's truck, dangling the keys as he stared at her intently.

"Sorry I'm late, I had to go all over the world for my dad before he handed over any keys." Paul said as he eyed Kylie intently, she looked like she had a lot on her mind. For a moment he was sort of ticked, had Jacob messed with her earlier when the little shit came to get Bella from school?

He walked over, sat down on the steps of the school building beside her and asked in a quieter and more solemn tone, "What's up?"

"I was just thinking.. Nevermind, it's stupid.. Totally stupid. And you've probably got a million better things to do or something, anyway." Kylie muttered, looking up at him, eying the milkshake in his hand as he sipped it. "Is that chocolate?"

"Maybe." Paul answered, holding it up just over her head when she reached for it to get a sip or two. He shook his head and then said in a gentle yet equally firm tone, "First, you tell me what this thing you apparently want me to do is, okay? And then, maybe, if you're lucky, Kitten.."

Kylie bit her lower lip a few moments, staring at him while her mind practically screamed at her _'Just ask him, damn it, the worst he can do is say no. The worst he can do, Kylie, is laugh. And he might occasionally be a lovable jerk, but he wouldn't purposely hurt you.. Not like Jake did. If you stop taking chances and trying to love people just because you made a mistake and wound up losing a lifelong best friend.. Kind of makes you a hypocrite when you say things about the way Bella's been since Edward left, doesn't it?' _and she tried to make herself say it, she really did, but nothing came for a few moments.

"What is it?" Paul asked, worried by now. Kylie normally talked nonstop, she really didn't have a problem communicating verbally for the most part, unless of course it was friends or family and what she wanted to say or ask might hurt or offend them or something.. She wasn't the kind of girl who normally took anywhere from two to ten minutes to get something out.

"There's a dance.."

"Yeah."

"I was wondering if maybe you'd go? I mean if you don't want to go with me, it's okay, it is semi formal.. But I wanted you to go with me.. Like a date, sort of? We're going to Chili's after, with Jess and that Carver guy.. And maybe bowling.. Why the hell am I getting so nervous?" Kylie babbled, twisting her hair around her fingertips, pointedly avoiding his steady and intense gaze for the moment.

Paul chuckled, after he almost choked on his milkshake, of course. He was used to being the pursuer, so he really was shocked that she was asking him to go on their first official date before he asked her. He mentally kicked himself, his game was off lately, then again, it's not every damn day you imprint on a girl and she's actually amazing and you find your senses, your mind, your body and your heart in a total uproar all at once. Sure, Kylie had her faults (namely letting Black and Bella walk over her too easy, or her stubborn nature, just to name two), but she was..

Well, she was better than he saw himself with given that he was cocky, he loved a good fight and until Kylie, he had a bit of a wandering eye..

_'Still though, man.. Not good excuses for you not actively going after your girl, sweeping her off of those tiny feet of hers. You're dominant, man, if you're anything.. And here she is, beating you to the punch. It's kinda cute though, how she's sitting there, so awkward and nervous.' _the wolf inside thought as he looked at her and finally managed to answer just as she was about to stand up and walk off or something.

He grabbed her wrist gently and asked when he turned her around, "Where the hell are you going?"

"Well, I figured when it took you a while to answer, I'd made things awkward enough for one day?" Kylie guessed, looking up at him, her head tilted slightly to one side, he was so much taller than he was, really, it made hard for her to look up at him without doing this.

"Yes. I'll go.. But you gotta go to mine.. My mom's kinda hinting she wants pictures of me... I guess to prove that I'm not always in trouble or something when I call her." Paul admitted sheepishly as he raked his hand over his hair and asked, "Friday night, right? After you guys get your asses beaten by that little school in the next town?"

"Yeah." Kylie laughed as she gave him a pretend glare and then said quietly, "You want me to go to yours with you too?"

"Mhmm.. I was going to ask you but I wasn't sure how opposed you'd be to the damned thing actually having a theme?" Paul admitted as he looked at Kylie a few moments, leaned down and brushed a strand of hair back behind her ears.

Kylie caught hold of his hand and asked casually, "What's the theme?"

"Halloween.." Paul chuckled as he added, "They're doing some kinda costume contest.."

"Ooh. Ours has a theme too.. ? It's All That Jazz, like the theme is the Twenties or something, it's semi formal.. I don't get why they even have themes for this crap, really. I was just gonna dress like a cabaret girl and be done with it or something.." Kylie admitted as she continued to sort of hold his hand in place where it rested on the side of her neck, just sort of in a shocked daze of sorts.

The not so hard part was over, she'd asked him..

Now she just had to figure out whether she'd be making a mistake, trying to make yet another friendship into another relationship when the last attempt still had her confused, hurt and reeling at it's sudden and abrupt end.

Okay, so maybe it hadn't been sudden or abrupt.. But it had ended and yes, it had shocked her when she'd wound up having to break things off with Jacob because she couldn't take his putting Bella first any longer.

She had to get over it sooner or later.. And she was starting to feel certain things for Paul. She wasn't putting him on the same pedestal that her father suggested she might have put Jacob on too much of the time. She wasn't going to go into this with blinders.

She knew that they'd probably fight now and then.

She knew he was not perfect and neither was she.

She knew that there were certain things about him, mostly his quick temper and the intensity of it, that scared her on occasion but that overall, she just sort of knew on some level that he wouldn't really hurt her on purpose.

_Maybe this time_, she thought to herself, _doing things slowly, letting them happen as opposed to the way things had happened with Jacob.. Maybe it would actually work out and she wouldn't wind up getting hurt or hurting Paul or something._

"It's not a big deal, the suit thing.. I got a blazer or something, I can steal my dad's tie.." Paul shrugged as he chuckled a little and then asked, "Was that all?"

"Yeah. I was just sort of nervous, I mean I didn't want to make things awkward.." Kylie admitted as Paul held out the milkshake, said with a sort of cocky grin, "That one's actually yours.. I just kinda got thirsty, finished mine on the way here?" shrugging when she gave him a playful dirty look.

He picked her up and carried her piggy back across the parking lot to his truck, sitting her in the passenger seat as he asked quietly, "So.. There's a bonfire tonight.. Your dad did say it was okay if you came too, right? My friends really want to meet you.. I mean other than Jared and Kim."

"Speaking of, where are they?" Kylie asked as she looked over at Paul, holding his gaze while she stealthily flipped the radio from the station he had it on to the one she preferred listening to.

"Ha. Lucky I think you're cute, Kitten." Paul teased as he shrugged and then answered her question, "Thought I wanted to be alone with ya.. If that's okay?"

"It is." Kylie said as she coughed a little, felt the heat rising all over her body and straight into her cheeks. When he teased her about blushing, she glared at him a moment, pretended to pout as she wondered to herself if this were sort of a date too or something.. Because normally, his friends were always with him.

After a few moments of quiet, her humming along with the radio, him watching her and sort of smiling to himself, Kylie looked over at Paul and asked with a curious look in her eyes, "Where are we going?"

"This place is kinda my special place.. Like when I want to get away from everyone or something, I usually go out there. Nobody really knows about it." Paul admitted as he pulled into a parking space at First Beach. "It's not First Beach, exactly.. But it's not far either."

Kylie bit her lower lip, felt that heat sort of settling into the pit of her stomach again. She got out of the truck and then asked, "What do you mean it's not exactly First Beach? Is it the cliffs?"

"Sort of." Paul admitted as he laughed, shook his head and putting her on his back again he asked "Do you have to ask questions, Kitten? It's kinda a surprise."

"Okay.."

"Oh come on.. You trust me, right?"

She thought about it a second and it shocked her when she realized that yes.. She did trust Paul. She trusted him a lot more than she'd thought she trusted Jacob before things went to hell as quickly as they had. She wiggled into a more comfortable position on his back and then leaned against him as she said with a laugh, "Yeah.. I actually do."

Paul smiled to himself and then said "Okay, so let's go.. You're not opposed to boats, right?"

"I guess not? Where are you taking me?"

"Just get in the boat, woman." Paul teased her gently as he helped her into the boat, they started the boat's motor, it headed towards a more secluded side of the cliffs, the side that bordered the woods. Kylie watched as First Beach and the people on it faded into the background and then she smiled at Paul, moved to sit between his knees.

She did this a lot, until lately, however, it wasn't a flirty thing, it was more of a friendly / I feel comfortable with you thing.. Now, however, yes, it was a slightly more flirtatious thing, the way she meant the gesture and all of the other small gestures she made towards him.

She was sick of fighting it. If she stopped risking her heart, she'd never actually make mistakes and learn anything. She'd never find the guy she'd spend the rest of her life with or something. And the last thing she wanted to do was miss out on real love, really loving someone else in return because she had one bad experience and it cost her a guy she thought she'd never lose.

_Jacob made his choice_, Kylie thought to herself, _now it was time for her to maybe make her own choices_.

Paul smirked and looked down at her, asked her with a laugh, "Comfortable?"

"Mhmm. You're always warm."

"Yeah."

"Now will you tell me where this place of yours is?"

The boat stopped and Paul stepped off, helped Kylie out of the boat and spread his arms out wide.. It was some kind of secluded little cove or something, there was a waterfall nearby. She gaped a few moments, the sheer shock and joy on her face made what he was doing more than worth it for him. "And here we are.. My dad and I usually fish and camp out here. I don't know if people know it's here or not, but I don't think a whole lot of people do." Paul admitted as he watched Kylie walking around, eyes wide with wonder and shock.

"It's amazing.. Like just to look at First Beach and the clifs.. You'd never guess this place was just on the other side, out of eyesight for the most part. I don't think anybody knows about it because my dad's been all over fishing and he's never been here.. Or I'd have been with him.. "

"You're the only person I've bought out here with me." Paul admitted as he raked his hand over his hair and then said "C'mon.. I said we were swimming today, did I not?"

"Yeah."

"So let's go already.. There's an overhang under the waterfall, it's not as high as the cliffs.. I know you have that slight thing with heights.."

"Not all heights.. just that highest cliff.. I've been on all the other ones." Kylie admitted as Paul chuckled and then said "Still.. I wanted to bring you here.. It's kinda private.. As in no friends intruding, no Black popping up.. Just you and me."

The words echoed around in Kylie's stunned brain.. Was he insinuating he wanted her to himself for a while? Was he flirting back with her, maybe?

She finally made herself smile and nod, shocked and happy. If she were alone in her room she'd probably scream or cheer or something stupid right now. She instead, rose to tiptoe and brushed her lips to his cheek.

Paul slid his hands down her sides slowly, stopping them at her hips, pulling her against him and pulling her lips against his. His heart was beating about a million miles an hour right now, he could feel her heart beating against her chest, almost as quickly as his was right now. He nipped at her lips and then muttered quietly, "I've wanted to do that for a while. Just the thing with Jacob.. I didn't want to seem like an asshole or something."

Truthfully, he hadn't wanted to rush things, he'd wanted to enjoy them.. And he also didn't want to rush her into anything, but lately, she seemed to flirt more with him, she seemed to really and finally be getting over her thing with Black at last.

And not making a move of some sort had been more difficult than anyone would realize unless they really knew him.

But he'd waited.

Kylie groaned, kissing him back, her hand raking through his hair as she looked up at him, stunned but happy. "I have too, actually. I just didn't want you to think it was to make Jerk mad or something.. I wanted you to know I actually liked you when something happened."

"Well, you beat me to asking you on a date.. I beat you to kissing first. We're kinda backwards." Paul joked, laughing a little as his lips met hers again. He finally had to break the kiss and for a few moments, he just sort of stared at her.

It felt a lot better, having this part out at least. Now all that remained was telling her about the wolf, telling her how she was his imprint and explaining what all that meant, but how he'd sort of noticed her and started feeling something towards her before he ever imprinted, just seeing her around with Black, the little shit.

"We are.. But it'll be okay, I think." Kylie admitted as she peeled off her tank top and jeans, she'd changed into her swimsuit almost as soon as practice ended for the day because she was excited like usual to spend time with Paul again.

Paul chuckled a little and they dove into the water together.

Today was a good day. Nobody to interfere with them, it honestly did feel like they were the only two people left in the world.


	8. Chapter 8

**(Holy hell.. I am up to 42 reviews now and counting, guys. I really, really love that so many people are okay with the bashing and the fact that it's sort of an alternate angle and perspective for the series from New Moon forward! I love reading what you guys have to say about it, it makes me so happy and it always makes me laugh or smile. Sorry for no update yesterday, I had to work longer than I thought I would, so I didn't get it all completely written and at least halfway edited until a little while ago. I LOVE YOU ALL FOR REVIEWING! AND I REALLY HOPE YOU GUYS KEEP READING THIS! AND THAT YOU CONTINUE TO LIKE IT!**

**And this chapter, hmm.. Jacob makes another appearance (as does this feisty side of Kylie), but those will soon be dwindling.. Because remember, he has his own first phase, becomes part of the pack and then proceeds to stupidly lets himself think he's imprinted on Bella. Anyway, in this chapter, a certain four letter word comes into play, Kylie and Paul are getting even closer to officially being an official thing! And there will probably be more fluff/banter/flirting. I'm trying to do it as in character as I can, I just hope to hell it even remotely sounds or reads like something Paul would say or do..**

* * *

CHAPTER EIGHT

You keep playin' where you shouldn't be playin'  
And you keep thinkin' that you'll never get burnt  
Ah, I've just found me a brand new box of matches, yeah  
And what he knows you ain't had time to learn  
These Boots, Nancy Sinatra

(Paul/Kylie/Jacob)

"You realize Paul's not the guy you think he is, right? That there's this thing going around the reservation about him and two other guys, Jared and Sam.. And now they've even gotten to Embry Call.. I don't get you, Kylie.." Jacob said as he caught up to Kylie who he just happened to see while waiting for Bella to get out of school for the day.

"You're not allowed to 'get me' anymore, Jacob. I ended things.. Because you were so far up my sister's ass, Jacob, that you couldn't tell where she stopped and you started.. And now that I'm okay with it, that I've gotten to the point that I can even look at you two together just a little bit, here you are, butting in, taking every single chance you have, Jacob, to pop up and spew this really messed up and stupid crap about Paul." Kylie grumbled as she started to walk off, intending to head into the gym for cheer practice.

"You know I'm right, Ky.. He's not telling you everything. And the parts he's not telling you, Kylie.. I just think you should take a step back and actually look at things." Jacob tried one more time. The part that sucked most about losing her had not been that he'd gotten dumped. It was, however, he was losing his oldest best friend and lately, with everything getting as crazy as it seemed to be, with everything he was afraid of happening to him, he was starting to realize that Bella only wanted to use him up and turn her back.. That if Edward came back tomorrow, he'd be forgotten.. Exactly the words Kylie said to him the day she finally couldn't take anymore.

Now, apparently, Sam Uley had not only gotten to his best friend Embry and the other guys who hung around him almost as if he were a cult leader, apparently one of Uley's minions had gotten to Kylie.. Jacob utterly loathed Paul right now, something that didn't seem to disappear, not even a little.

Especially not when he'd see them around and he could look at Kylie and tell she was happy. She was so happy, in fact, it seemed to radiate off of her and make her have this glow about her. Had she ever once been that way with him? He found himself wondering this all the time lately. And Bella's constant clinging neediness, it was really starting to make him wonder if she weren't faking this entire episode purely for her own twisted reasons.

Again, like he usually did, he shoved this thought out of his head. Because Bella wouldn't do that.. Would she?

Kylie froze and turned to look at Jacob, her hand tangled in her hair as she bit her lower lip and tried her very best to not totally lose her temper with Jacob Black. She didn't want the entire student body hearing what she wanted to tell him right now, she didn't want her business out there for everyone in the general population of Forks High to know, to whisper about in the hallways, but damn it, she was beyond tempted right now to really lose it.

She walked over to where Jacob stood currently and then said as calmly as she could, "Don't you have someone to wait on?"

"The only reason you get touchy, Kylie, is you know I'm telling the truth."

"No, Jacob, the reason I'm getting touchy," Kylie used airquotes to accentuate his choice of words as she continued, "Is because you can't just back the fuck off. Do you see me popping up every ten damned minutes when you're out with my crazy bitch of a sister? Didn't think so.. And whatever you think you know about Paul? It doesn't matter to me, okay? Because he treats me like a fucking princess.. I matter to him. I'm not some hassle he has to deal with or something. And he hasn't lied to me, he's been pretty straightforward."

"Oh so you know about him spending pretty much all his time with Uley and his cult then?"

"Actually, Jacob, I've met Sam. He seems like a decent guy.. A little stiff and formal, but he's not this crazy cult leader you seem hell bent on making me think he is. So what Paul has friends? I've met them.. They're not all that bad." Kylie said as she eyed Jacob, waited on a rebuttal which came a few seconds later.

"But his anger problem."

" Yeah, it freaks me out when he gets angry. But I'm pretty sure I do things that either scare annoy or totally piss him off. I'm not putting the guy on a pedestal.. I kinda love him for what he is. If you really care about someone, Jacob, you're not constantly trying to change them or change yourself for them.. Maybe one day when my sister's through fucking around in your head you'll learn that." Kylie blurted before she could stop herself.

Had she heard herself right?

She** loved** Paul?

Just having admitted it shocked her just a little. But it also felt liberating, saying it out loud like that finally instead of desperately trying to keep the l word down just a while longer.. No sense in rushing things, she felt, she didn't want to get into another situation where she stood to lose someone she called a best friend.

But it didn't shock her as much as it shocked Paul himself who'd pulled up and gotten out of his father's truck, intending on going into the gym to watch her cheerleading practice and surprise her. He'd seen Jacob and Kylie having a confrontation and naturally, before he could stop himself, the wolf inside was dying to come out and make Jacob Black piss himself in mortal terror.

But he hung back a moment, using his keen hearing to sort of listen in on the conversation. And when he heard Kylie say what she did about actually loving him, it made this softer and slightly goofier version of his usual cocky smirk come to his lips. All he could do was stand there, listening, her words repeating around in his mind.

When Jacob kept persisting, he took the chance to walk up behind Kylie, slipping his arms around her waist as he eyed Jacob angrily. If it weren't for Kylie's whole past ties to this jackass, he'd have let the wolf come out and scare the living piss out of the little shit a thousand times already.

"Is he buggin you Kitten?" Paul asked, a wicked gleam in his eyes as he fixed them on Jacob Black, before adding quickly, "Because if he is, all you have to do is say the word."

Jacob glared right back. He knew what Paul was.. And he knew that if he actually told Kylie what he suspected, he could pretty much end Paul and Kylie before they ever even really began.. Or so he thought..

Hell, he'd hinted that Paul was in a cult and Kylie didn't seem to care. Paul was changing her, he was losing his best friend and all he had left was whatever was going on between himself and Bella.. He was afraid that soon he'd become something he'd rather not be, a shapeshifter, one of them, and basically, his entire world was in an uproar this year.

"I think he was just leaving.." Kylie said as she turned to look up at Paul, raised to tiptoe to give him a gentle peck on the lips, wondering to herself all the while just how much of the entire argument he'd heard ..

Had he heard her admitting she loved him?

"You okay?"

"Yeah, I just.. He pisses me off lately." Kylie admitted as she kissed him again, giving him a more affectionate kiss this time, Paul laughing against her lips as he asked casually, "Don't you have practice?"

She blinked a little, stunned.. "Damn it.. You always distract me." she teased him gently as she asked, "You're staying to watch?"

"Mhmm. Football practice kinda got ended early so I thought I'd come and watch you, that maybe we could go play a game of pool or something when it's over? And get food?"

"I'd like that a lot."

Being a bit more forward than he knew Kylie was, he laced her fingers through his and stopped their walk towards the gymnasium as he said with a quiet smirk, "I kinda love you for what you are too.", winking at her. When she bit her lower lip and blushed almost a scarlet red, he chuckled and shrugged then added, "I was about to butt in and just punch him in the throat or something but I didn't want to make you upset or something.. I know he's been in your life a really long time." as he looked at her, smiled.

Just hearing her say what she had, knowing she meant that she loved him in actuality, not just the way he was.. It made him want to try harder to control his damned anger and temper, especially now that he did know for sure that it freaked her out a good bit.

Kylie stammered a few moments and then said quietly, "I didn't want to make you feel awkward and say that too soon or something." as she looked up at him, smiled, still blushing a little. He shrugged and then said with a wink, " It's cute.. I mean is it only just me you get nervous around?"

"Well, you are to quote your own words an extra manly man." Kylie teased him gently as they walked into the gym, Paul going up into the bleachers, sitting at the top, whistling at her when she made it out onto the court with the rest of the squad and started practicing a new routine.

"Who is that guy?"

"That's Paul."

"If there are any more guys that look that fine.."

Jessica leaned in and with a laugh said "He's whistling.. Again. And naturally, you're slightly distracted."

'Girl.. If she's only slightly distracted, she needs a smack in the head or something. He IS a definite distraction."

"Seriously? I'm standing right here?"

"It's so cute, the way he looks at you." Jessica pointed out, giggling when Kylie raised a brow. Jessica shook her head and as soon as practice finally ended she laughed and said "You guys are coming to the diner, right?"

"Yeah.. I'll see you guys later." Kylie said as she jogged up into the bleachers and flopped down dramatically, her head resting against Paul's leg as she said "I'm starving.. And thanks to the coach PMSing about me being a little late, I now cannot feel my legs from the hips down."

"Yeah, I noticed that. You're a little fireball when you get mad, huh?"

"What? I did nothing.. Okay, so maybe I was in a bit of a mood when we came in here.. But hey, that whole thing outside is not going to mess up our afternoon."

"Good. I'm taking it you're ready to go?"

"Mhmm.. One problem?"

"What's that?"

"My legs are killing meeee.. I will never mouth off to the coach again. Ever."

"Okay, Fireball.. Give me a second, I'll pick you up." Paul joked as he bent, picked her up and put her onto his back, carrying her down the bleachers.

"I'm glad you came today. It was a sweet surprise." Kylie said as Paul shushed her and then joked, "Don't tell people that, damn, woman.. I'm supposed to be a badass or something."

"You're a teddy bear."

"If by teddy bear you mean grizzly.."

"No, Paul, you are sweeter than you think you are."

"Only because of you, Kitten.. Everybody else? Nah." Paul admitted as they pulled out of Forks High parking lot, heading for the diner in town..


	9. Chapter 9

**(Holy hell.. I am up to 48 reviews now and counting, guys. I really, really love that so many people are okay with the bashing and the fact that it's sort of an alternate angle and perspective for the series from New Moon forward! I love reading what you guys have to say about it, it makes me so happy and it always makes me laugh or smile. I LOVE YOU ALL FOR REVIEWING! AND I REALLY HOPE YOU GUYS KEEP READING THIS! AND THAT YOU CONTINUE TO LIKE IT!**

**Okay, so I had an anon request that Paul lose his temper. This is sort of that, but sooner or later, he will totally lose his temper. :) Hopefully, for now, this works a little and it's not OOC and shitty. Sorry I haven't updated in a few days, but I didn't forget you guys, I swear! Took a few days for Easter and whatnot, my man was here so I was distracted or something. Anyway, yeah, this chapter, we see Kylie and Paul argue a little. :) The quote I used to start is from The Notebook, Noah and Allie.. Because they remind me of Paul and Kylie.  
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CHAPTER NINE

_ Well that's what we do, we fight... You tell me when I am being an arrogant son of a bitch and I tell you when you are a pain in the ass. Which you are, 99% of the time. I'm not afraid to hurt your feelings. You have like a 2 second rebound rate, then you're back doing the next pain-in-the-ass thing. _

_ So it's not gonna be easy. It's gonna be really hard. We're gonna have to work at this every day, but I want to do that because I want you. I want all of you, for ever, you and me, every day. Will you do something for me, please? Just picture your life for me? 30 years from now, 40 years from now? What's it look like? If it's with him, go. Go! I lost you once, I think I can do it again. If I thought that's what you really wanted. But don't you take the easy way out. _

_ Noah (to Allie) from The Notebook_

(Kylie/Paul, who yes, remind me an awful lot of young Noah and young Allie when I write their scenes.)

"So what? Just because he looked at me, Paul, this then means I wanna leave and go home with the guy?" Kylie asked, glaring at Paul who was currently glaring at another guy across the crowded Forks High gym. The guy in question was just a friend of hers from Biology, but apparently, Paul was in the full grips of the green eyed monster right now so no, he wasn't hearing reason.

They argued a lot and sometimes Kylie wondered just what the hell kept them migrating back to each other for more.. But just when she'd start to wonder, he'd do something sweet, or she'd look at him one good time and magically, it felt as if everything that they were fighting about ten minutes before just sort of faded, became non important.

Tonight, from the looks of it, was going to be one of those nights. They'd been arguing since she got into his father's truck, mostly about how her costume showed her body off and how he was going to spend half the night at this damned dance fighting guys off of her just so he could have her to himself or something.. Which yes, she secretly found cute, especially when coupled with that irresistable pout of his, but currently, it was kind of annoying her.

All she wanted was one damned slow dance with her boyfriend but no.. Her boyfriend was too busy behaving like a Neanderthal. And being a jerk, treating her like less of a girlfriend and more like a possession. She liked his possessive side, his dominance, normally, tonight, when they were already fighting, all she wanted to do was grab him and shake him, maybe it'd put some sense back into his brain or something.

"Well it kinda felt like it, Kitten." Paul grumbled as he glared at and taunted the guy from across the crowded gym. Every guy here tonight was looking at her, the damned costume that yes, was sexy and yes, he thought she was sexier than any other girl present at this crappy and cliché dance, well.. The damned costume was drawing attention to her and damn it, she belonged to him.

"So you're sticking with that?"

"I am, yeah.. I mean you did talk to him for almost ten minutes at the punch bowl." Paul grumbled. He knew he messed up the second he saw the glimmering of tears in those pretty eyes of hers and she tore her hand out of his, proceeded to storm off, away from him.

"Fine. Walk off." he shouted over the music, watching her walk away before it sank in what he'd just said in anger. Then the panic began, the inner turmoil and damn it, for just one moment, he found himself wishing that they were just a normal and ordinary couple and that he did not have to reign in the dominant shifter side in himself. Especially on nights like this, when he was around a crowd of people he didn't know, and she was dressed so sexy and he just.. He wanted to tell her, to tell the world that she belonged to him or something, to explain what he really meant when he said it and not just have her losing her temper like she did when he said it presently because she was taking it the wrong way.

The problem with that, of course, was that he couldn't exactly go around blurting it out just yet. So when he casually inserted it into a conversation, like he had a few moments before, Kylie automatically assumed he was just being a jerk and saying he owned her, which in fact was not what he meant and then all hell usually broke loose.

Unlike her passive aggressive bitch of a sister, his Kylie, he was learning, had a hair trigger temper similar to his own.

_'You fucking idiot.. Smooth. What if she does walk off and she does leave with that guy, huh? Then you're gonna be driven crazy, you're gonna hurt like hell and you're gonna make an even bigger ass of yourself, Lahote, when you find the damned guy and beat the living piss out of him.' _came the wolf from within. Lately, it sort of seemed as if the wolf was starting to tone it down a little.

A lot of it had to do with Kylie, when she wasn't driving him right up one wall and down another, of course, but a lot of it was him not wanting to accidentally hurt Kylie or put her in a dangerous position or something because yes, holding his temper was not one of his strong suits.

He shoved through the crowd, a guy shoved him back and he growled, taking a swing, continuing to shove past, only one goal on his mind..

He had to find Kylie. He had to stop that prick from ten minutes ago who'd been flirting with her, damn it, he knew it, from getting Kylie to herself or something.

He found Kylie, but the guy he'd punched after accidentally shoving him caught up to him and the fight broke out before he could stop himself.

Kylie heard the shouting and she groaned internally, handed her punch to Jessica and grumbled as she said "Damn it. He promised me.. One night of no damned fights. I just wanted to slow dance with him, to have him hold me, to do things not pertaining to violence and damned if now that damned temper of his.. I'll be right back." and worked her way through the crowd, towards Paul, shouting his name.

Mike grabbed her and shook his head then pointed out, "Miller's been mouthing off about Paul for a week now, since that fight at the football game last Friday when we played La Push. Best thing you can do, Ky, is stand back and let the two of them get it all out. Besides, Miller has this ass kicking coming to him.. Trust me, you just don't know the things that were said in the lineup."

"Let me go, Mike."

"Stand still, Kylie."

Paul and the other guy finished their fight, being pulled apart and taken outside. Kylie swore and slipped her feet out of her shoes, walked out of the gym after him, found him punching the side of his father's truck lightly and tapped his shoulder, a not amused look in her eyes as she looked up at him.

"Seriously, Paul?"

"He was flirting with you, Kitten, to get to me. So yeah, I punched him when he jumped into the fight with me and the other guy. It's like I said earlier."

Kylie grumbled and said calmly, "I'm your girlfriend, Paul, not some toy or something. You have got to stop fucking doing this. You cannot fight every single guy who breathes on me." as she looked up at him, wincing, his lip was busted but she knew without a doubt that yes, the other guy did look at least fifteen times worse right now.

She reached up after tearing a strip of fabric from the skirt of the costume, gingerly wiped at his lip as she shook her head, still pretty ticked at him because his temper had gotten them sent out of the dance before he even got to slow dance with her, but at the same time, upset and wanting to go back into the damned dance and punch the guy who busted his lip in the face.

His hand closed over her hand and he asked "So you're not mad at me anymore?"

"Oh, I'm still ticked.. Damn it, Paul, you do fine then you have a night like tonight."

"Look, I'd apologize but I'm not sorry. The guy was being a prick. And it did kinda seem like you were flirting with the prick, Kitten."

"Seriously? We're back on this, Paul? We're really back on this.. Okay, so explain to me one thing, you stubborn ass.. If I were flirting with that jerk, why the hell then, am I out here with you? Talking to someone, Paul, is not flirting with them." Kylie stated, her voice raising a little. She didn't like fighting with Paul but damn it, when he got these possessive tendencies sometimes it drove her crazy, sometimes in more ways than one.

"I don't know. All I know is you were lookin."

"No, Paul, I wasn't."

He grumbled as she got that hurt look in her eyes again, started to storm across the parking lot, apparently intent on walking the two blocks to her fathers house or something. "Damn it, woman." he grumbled as he jogged, caught up with her, tapped her shoulder.

"I hate fightin with you."

"And I hate fighting with you, Paul.. But you have got to stop letting this little stuff get to you.. If I wanted someone else, damn it, I'd be with them. But I'm not. I'm here with you. And all I wanted to do tonight was dance with you." Kylie admitted, pouting up at him, still a little upset from the looks of things.

"I can't help it, damn."

"You can, Paul. You can. You just don't think." Kylie said quietly as she looked up at him and then asked, "Can we just get out of here? Maybe go for a ride or something?"

"I thought you wanted to dance with me."

"I'm still pissed at you, Paul, because you got us thrown out of the dance.. Besides, there's no music."

"There can be." he said as he pulled her against him, laughed when she looked up at him, scowled a little.

"Damn you, I can't stay angry with you for more than a few seconds." Kylie grumbled as she rested her head against his chest, took a few calming deep breaths.

Paul snickered a little, taking a few calming deep breaths of his own. Back there, in that gym, if he'd gotten any madder, he'd have wolfed out. The fact that he hadn't surprised him.

Maybe he was getting better at putting a handle on his temper to some degree.. That way Sam would let him see Kylie as much as he wanted without the two of them having to go round for round verbally when he said he was going to see her.


End file.
